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THE . 

FOUR CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WORLD. 



THE FOUR CIVILIZATIONS 



THE WORLD, 



AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 



/ 
By henry WHvOFF, 

AUTHOR OF " A VISIT TO PEINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON AT HAM," " POLITICAL ESSAYS,' 
ETC., ETC. 



.r/;7^Ft 



PHILADELPHIA: ^ 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
1874. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 

HENRY WIKOFF, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



TO THE READER. 



It has often struck me tliat a book was wanted that would 
give a concise and intelligible exposition of the history of 
France, England, and the United States. In this country 
especially, men, for the most part, are too busy to ransack 
ponderous volumes and grope their way through misty dis- 
quisitions. Furthermore, the history of these countries is 
often written with so much bias that it is indispensable to 
read more than one to acquire an accurate knowledge of 
their various phases during the vicissitudes that have befiillen 
them. I have attempted, however inadequately, to supply this 
desideratum. The present volume contains a condensed sketch 
of the countries above named ; and I may venture to challenge 
the most rigid criticism on the score of its perfect independ- 
ence and impartiality ; for without these history is but a delu- 
sion and a snare. 

It is not a mere chronicle of facts and dates I have aimed 
at, but rather such an interpretation of the events of history 
and the actions of men as to show the effect of one and the 
influence of the other. In order that the distinctive features 
of the fourth civilization, under which we are now living, 
might be the more readily discerned, I have given, with ex- 
treme brevity, a resume of the three ancient civilizations. I 
lingered for a moment over the marvels of the third one, not 
merely because it so completely eclipsed all that preceded it, 
but that it has left its impress on the world even to this very 
day. 



Vi TO THE READER. 

AVhoever seeks to understand the actual condition of France, 
England, and the United States, must penetrate into the mys- 
teries of their past. The bes^t guide to a knowledge of an 
individual is an investigation of his antecedents. So with a 
nation, which, through its infancy, youth, and maturity, under- 
goes various transformations, aceording to the circumstances 
which have accompanied its development. "A nation," said 
Jean Lemoine recently, speaking of France, " a nation, es- 
pecially a great nation like ours, consists of its past, of its 
traditions, of an accumulated heritage of laws and customs, 
which are a part of its being." We must go back then to the 
origin of a country, and follow it, however rapidly, through its 
career if we would appreciate its actual position. To spare the 
reader the bewildering mass of details that usually forms the 
staple of history, I have discarded all irrelevant matter, all 
romantic incident, and sought to fix his attention on the im- 
portant links in the long chain of cause and efiect that con- 
stitute the story of the world. Without a-spiring to the rank 
of those fortunate few alluded to by the poet — " Felix q\d 
potuit reriim cognoscere caiisas" — still I entertain the hope 
that no one who peruses this retrospect will lay it down 
without a more just conception of the mysterious designs of 
Providence, which, after suffering mankind to endure for long 
centuries the deceptions and oppression of the three ancient 
civilizations, suddenly gave a new direction to their destiny by 
ordaining the advent of Christianity, the fourth civilization, 
which has brought in its train such amazing results. 

It will be observed that this book, beginning at three thou- 
sand years before Christ, closes about the year eighteen hun- 
dred and thirty; and should its reception be at all encouraging, 
I propose to follow it up with one or more volumes, depicting 
the events of my own time, and the men who have figured in 
them. 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



FIRST CIVILIZATION. 

PAGE 

ASIA 1 



SECOND CIVILIZATION. 
AFEICA 6 

A MYSTEBY. 
AMERICA 9 

THIRE CIVILIZATION, 

EUROPE 12 

GREECE 14 

ROME 26 



Vlll CONTENTS. 



FOURTH CIVILIZATION. 

PAGE 

CHRISTIANITY . 31 

DARK AGES . , 42 

THE NEW POLITY 47 

FBANCE. 

France — Middle Ages . ... . .55 

The Monarchy assails Feudality — Middle Ages . . 75 
Triumph of the Monarchy — Seventeenth Century . 89 
Decline of the Monarchy — Eightee.'nth Century . . 95 
The Revolution — Eighteenth Century . . .104- 

Committee of Public Safety . . . . .108 

The Directory 121 

The Consulate — Nineteenth Century . . . .131 
The Empire — Nineteenth Century .... 135 
Restoration of the Monarchy — Nineteenth Century . 140 



The Hundred Days 
Second Restoration 



141 
142 



Downfall of the Monarchy — Nineteenth Century . 146 

ENGLAND. 

England — Saxon Epoch . . . , , .151 

The Norman Conquest — Middle Ages . . . 155 

Feudality vanquishes the Monarchy — Middle Ages . 162 
The Monarchy again in the Ascendant — Sixteenth 

Century 177 

Decline of the Monarchy — Seventeenth Century . 201 

The Revolution — Seventeenth Century . . .212 

Ohver Cromwell . . . . . . .218 

The Restoration — Seventeenth Century . . .239 
The Monarchy Limited — Seventeenth Century . . 249 



CONTENTS. 



IX 



THE PAPACY. 



The Papacy ...... 

Luther, Calvin, and Knox — Sixteenth Century 
Descartes and Richelieu — Seventeenth Century 
Treaty of Westphalia — Seventeenth Century 



PAGE 

. 259 
. 2G6 

. 272 
. 277 



I 



THE UNITED STATES. 

The United States — Colonial Epoch . 

The Puritans — Seventeenth Century . 

The Mother- country renounced - 

Declaration of Independence — Eighteenth Centui 

The War 

Failure of the Confederation 
The New Constitution 
Presidency of Washington 
Presidency of John Adams 
Presidency of Thomas Jefferson 
Presidency of James Madison . 
Presidency of James Monroe 
Presidency of John Quincy Adams . 



.283 
. 286 
. 299 
. 308 
. 314 
. 325 
. 330 
. 338 
. 35G 
. 363 
. 371 
. 381 
. 387 



SUMMARY 



393 



AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 



FIRST CIVILIZATION. 

ASIA. 

The first civilization on record is that of Hindostan, 
more familiarly known as India. Its origin is wrapped 
in fable, but the first dynasty may be traced to 3200 
years before Christ. TliQ date of the sacred books 
entitled the '^ Vedas " is put down at fifteen centuries 
before the same period. The "" Institutes of Menu," 
a compilation of moral and political laws, are said to 
have appeared some twelve centuries before the Chris- 
tian era. 

The most remaikah'.e feature in this civilization 
is, that it remains to this day nearly what it was ^\q 
thousand years ago : that is to say, the vast majority 
of the population now, as then, are sunk in poverty 
and slavery; whjf.t the Upper Classes monopolize 
all the wealth and power, political and social. 

The singular duration of this ill-balanced system is 
due to causes not difficult to discover. Chief among 
these must be placed the climate of the country. The 



2 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

heat mnlces the soil fertile, and food ahnndaat and 
cheap. The excess of popuhition, which is the natural 
result, produces an overstocked labor market, and 
makes wages so low as barely to sustain life.* The 
entire product of the industry of the masses, constitut- 
ing the wealth of the country, \h and has ever been, 
in Uici hands of the Upper Classes ; and they, posse?,.?- 
ing the wealth, are able to engross all the knowledge, 
for wealth gives leisure, and leisure yields knowledge. 
Wealth and knowledge always command power , and 
tlms it has come to' pass that in India the Upper 
Classes are tyrants, and the people all slaves. This 
state of things, which owed its origin to physical 
causes, the laws and the religions of the country have 
from the remotest periods souglit to perpetuate. The 
code attributed to Menu, already alluded to, rigidly 
forbids the people, under the cruellest penalties, to 
acquire knowledge. For instance, one of these native 
laws sa^'s: — ^' If, moved by the desire of instrnction, 
any one listen to the reading of the sacred books, 
burning oil is to be poured into his ears. If, how- 
ever, any one commit them to memory, he is to be 
killed." These and similar enactments are levelled 
especially at the Sudras — that is, the laboring popu- 
lation. 

The tSudras are estimated by various writers at 
three-fourths of the Hindoos. The remaining fourth 
is divided into three castes. The first consists of the 
])riests and the learned, and from this class all the 
functionaries are taken ; the second caste consists of 



* It is beyond dispute that wages are determined by the supply of 
labor in the long run. Labor may sometimes increase, it is true, 
without affecting wages, but this can take place only up to a certain 
point. When labor becomes redundant, wages must fall. 



AS/A. J 

the army ; the third, of the merchants and agricul- 
turists. Below the fourth and lowest caste — the 
Sudras already mentioned — is still another order : 
those known as Pariahs^persons who have been ex- 
pelled from the other castes, and from whom all 
Hindoos shrink with horror. 

The oldest religion in India, and in the world, is 
Brahminism. It recognizes a Supreme Deity, who 
manifests himself in three forms and under three 
names, constituting a trinity, but who is worshipped 
as one god. The first manifestation is Brahma, the 
creator, vv^ho represents the past. His emblem is 
the sun. The second is Vishnu, the conservative 
principle, who represents the present. His emblem 
is water. The third is Siva, the principle of destruc- 
tion, who represents the future. His emblem is fire. 
There are, besides, a number of subaltern gods, who 
execute the mandates of these three. The followers 
of Brahminism believe in the immortality of the 
soul in the form of metempsychosis ; and their rites 
consist in ablutions, abstinences, &c. Brahmin- 
ism is full of superstitions, some of which are of a 
revolting character. At the fete of the Jugger- 
naut, the car of the god crushed under its iron 
wheels the fanatics who believed such a death en- 
sured eternal happiness. Other zealots inflicted on 
themselves the most cruel tortures. Widows, for 
example, burned themselves on the bodies of their 
dead Imsbands.* It numbers about 100,000,000 of 
believers, and is still in many respects the dominant 
religion of Hindostan. 

Another religion of Asia, which counts a still greater 

* The English Government has humanely suppressed these odiuaa 
customs. 



4 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

following, ha,ving some 200,000,000 of adIiGrents, 
is Budclliism, wliicli was founded some 600 years 
before Chvist, and was first preached in tlie north of 
India. It differs from Brahminism in one essential 
])oint : it admits all castes within its fold, and 
foreigners as well as natives. This religion is purely 
s[)iritual, and the chief deit}-, Buddha, represents 
supreme reason and absolute intelligence. It declares 
our present existence to be imperfect and perishable ; 
that the world is an illusion of the senses ; and that 
the soul should be detached from material things, 
and prepared for entrance into the true and imperish- 
able world, wdiere Buddha reigns supreme in a region 
eternal and indestructible. This religion appeared in 
China in the first century of our era, and continued to 
overspread various parts of Asia. It has been furi- 
ously persecuted by Brahminism, which in the four- 
teenth century expelled it from India ; though its 
followers are now twice as numerous as those of the 
persecuting faith. Its sacred books are called ^' Com- 
mandments," and copies exist in the Great Library of 
Paris. 

From this rapid sketch it will be seen that the 
laws and religion of the oldest empire in the world 
combined to maintain the ascendency of the Upper 
Classes, and to perpetuate the sulyjection of the 
masses. Historians note as a phenomenon that the 
people have never made an effort to throw off the yoke 
by insurrection. Whilst wars between Kings and 
Dynasties, whilst conspiracies and revolutions among 
the Upper Classes, have been common enough, the 
laboring population have tamely submitted to their 
fate, as if conscious that it was ordained of nature 
and nature's God. 



A SI A, 5 

A conclusive proof that it is to physical causes, 
such as climate, food, and soil, the condition of A^ia 
is to be ascribed, is the fact that all tropical countries 
are in a similar condition. ^' There is no instance ou 
record of any tropical country," says a learned writer, 
^' where Yv^ealth having been extensively accumulated, 
the people have escaped their fate; no instance in 
which the heat of the climate has not caused abund- 
ance of food, and the abundance of food caused an 
unequal distribution, first of wealth, and then of 
political and social power. Among nations subjected 
to these conditions the people have counted for 
nothing ; they have had no voice in the management 
of the State, no control over the wealth their own 
industry created ; their only business has been to 
labor, their only duty to obey." 

Thus much of Asia, usaally called the cradle of 
the human race, since its history began there. It 
is declared by some writers that the\ authentic history 
of this continent hardly begins before the end of the 
tenth century a.d. 



SECOND CIVILIZATION, 

AFRICA 

Whether we are to look for the first traces of civiliza- 
tion OQ the continent of Africa in Egypt or Ethiopia 
is uncertain ; but it is beyond question that the former 
country ultimately attained the highest development. 
The history of Egypt may be dated from 2450 before 
Christ, when its first King, Menes, reigned. Before 
that all is fabulous. 

The main features of Asiatic and African civiliza- 
tion were identical, and the same causes are assigned. 
In Egypt, the masses were poor and enslaved, whilst 
the Upper Classes possessed all the wealth and 
power. ^' The civilization of Egypt being, like that 
of India, caused by the fertility of the soil," 
says Buckle, " and the climate being also very hot, 
there were in both countries brought into play the 
same laws, and then naturally followed the same 
results. In both countries we find the national food 
cheap and abundant : hence the labor market over- 
supplied ; hence a very unequal division of wealth 
and power ; and hence all the consequences which 
such inequality will inevitably produce. " In Asia, 
the ordinary food of the people w^as rice ; in Egypt, 
and other parts of Africa, it was composed of dates, 
the fruit of the palm-tree. This fruit, which was 
abundantly produced with little labor, not only fed 
the millions of human beings that crowded Egypt in 



AFRICA. 7 

ancient times, but was likewise the food of animals 
of all kinds. 

We have an excellent proof of the redundance 
of population produced by the cheapness of food 
in the statement of Herodotus, that there were said 
to be twenty thousand inhabited cities in Egypt 
when, nearly five centuries before Christ, he was 
travelling through the country. 

The Egyptians were originally divided, like the 
Hindoos, into four castes — the priests, the army, the 
artisans, and the peasants, called fellahs. The Go- 
vernment at first was theocratic, and the sacerdotal 
was higher than the royal power. The land was 
divided among the Clergy, the Army, and the King, 
each of whom owned a third. 

The same care was shown in Egypt as in India to 
keep the masses in profound subjection. They were 
forbidden to change the condition in which fate had 
placed them, every man being required to follow the 
pursuit of his father. All knowledge was confined 
to the Upper Classes ; and severe penalties v/ere in- 
flicted, as in India, on those of the lower who sought 
for information. 

The religion of ancient Egypt was a sort of Pan- 
theism, in which all the forces and forms of nature 
were deified. Above all the rest was a god with- 
out name, eternal, infinite, and the source of all 
things. Then came a series of subaltern gods, as in 
India, with emblems almost similar. Lastly, ani- 
mals, plants, and vegetables were worshipped in 
diff'erent portions of the country. The Egyptian^, be- 
lieved in the immortality of the soul, and in metem- 
psychosis. They had also great respect for the dead, 
and carefully embalmed the bodies of their parents. 



8 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

The Mathematical and Physical Sciences, especially 
Astronomy and Geometry, were well known in ancient 
Egypt. Alchymy and Astrology were held in honour. 
Sculpture was highly developed; and Architecture 
soared into immense proportions, of which abundant 
evidence survives in those colossal pyramids and 
obelisks that still astonish travellers. Diodorus, the 
Greek historian, mentions that it took 360,000 men 
for twenty years to build one of the pyramids — a 
conclusive proof of the absolute manner in which the 
Government disposed of the masses. 

This is a brief epitome of the ancient civilization 
of Egypt, the second on record. It seems evident 
that its character and duration must, as in the case of 
Asia, be attributed to physical causes ; for it endures 
to this day almost the same as it was. twenty centuries 
and more before our era. 



A AIYSTER F. . 

AMERICA. 

The occnpants of the AmericaD continent are mncli 
given to fancy that, however inscrutable the origin of 
other parts of the world may be, they, at least, can 
boast of living in a land whose history is -of yesterday. 
It should not be forgotten, however, that for unknown 
centuries before Columbus and his successors arrived, 
America was inhabited, not merely by wandering and 
savage tribes, but by a settled and civilized people. 
Two nations — Mexico and Peru — the one north and 
the other south of the equator, but under exactly the 
same physical conditions as regards climate and soil, 
were found by the astonished Europeans in possession 
of a civilization little inferior to their own. 

It is a very remarkable fact that the religious, poli- 
tical, and social features of both these countries were 
almost identical with those of India and Egypt. la 
America, as in Asia and Africa, all the wealth and 
power were monopolized by the Upper Classes, whilst 
the lower were in a state of helpless subjection ; the 
authority of the Priest was higher than that of the 
King; and the Government was despotic. In both 
continents, too, we find the same gods and idols wor- 
shipped ; in both we find the people divided into castes, 
the lower classes performing all the labor, and subject 
to rigorous restraints against any attempt to better 

their conditioii. " The lower classes in Mexico and 

1* 



10 AN HISTORICAL RETRORPRCT. 

Pern," says Prescott, " could follow no craft, engage 
in no labor or amusement, save such as the law pre- 
scribed. They could not change their residence or 
their dress, or even marry without the cousent of the 
Government." 

Mexico and Peru also resembled Egypt and India 
in the progress they had made in the Arts. In Archi- 
tecture, Sculpture, Painting, and Music, these Ame- 
rican communities were fully as advanced as tlxpse 
of Asia and Africa. In Astronomy also, and some 
other Sciences, Mexico and Peru had made some 
progress ; and we are told by Prescott that they 
were skilled in Manufacture and Agriculture, and 
distinguished by much social refinement. Various 
authors bear testimony to the splendour of their 
temples and palaces ; the extent of their fortifications, 
roads, and canals ; the beauty of their arms, orna- 
ments, vases, tapestry, and costumes. The pyramids 
in Mexico are compared by M'CuUoch to those of 
Egypt ; and Prescott tells us that the royal residence 
in Peru occupied twenty thousand men for fifty years, 
and that two hundred thousand men were employed 
on the royal residence in Mexico. He adds that the 
Mexican Monarchs, like those of ancient Asia and 
Egypt, had control of immense masses of men, and 
would sometimes turn the whole population of a con- 
quered city, including the women, into the public 
works. 

Various thinkers, and none more than Buckle, 
attribute the condition of Mexico and Peru, just as 
the}^ attribute the condition of India and Egypt, 
almost wholly to physical causes. They maintain 
that the subjection of the lower classes in Mexico 
and Peru was due to the fact that food was cheap and 



AMERICA. 1 1 

labor redundant — tlie banana, potato, and mai'fee being 
as plentiful in these countries as rice in India and 
dates in Egypt. It is both singular and striking that 
not merely the physical features, but the social con- 
dition of the two countries, remain to-day pretty much 
what they were before Cortes or Pizarro visited their 
shores. It would seem that neither Christianity, nor 
the Republican Institutions which have been since 
introduced there, have done much towards ameliorat- 
ing the condition of the great mass of the population. 



THIRD CIVILIZATION. 

EUROPE. 

The civilization wliich followed those already recorded 
in Asia and Africa, and which soared far bej'ond 
tliem^ appeared in Europe some 2000 years before 
Christ. This may be considered as the third civili- 
zation, for no date can be assig-ned to that found 
existing in Mexico and Peru. 

It will be seen that the startling development of 
intellect, which gradually arose in Europe, utterly 
eclipsed all that had gone before ; but it cannot be 
denied that, in Religion and Government, the models 
bequeathed by Asia and Africa were, in the main, 
reproduced. Political power, wealth, and education, 
were, as hitherto, monopolized by the Upper Classes ; 
and the masses still continued in the same condition 
of ignorance, poverty, and dependence. Religion, 
though stripped of many of the features which in Asia 
made it hideous, and in Africa degrading, was in 
nowise better calculated to exalt and advance 
Humanity. In this respect, the third civilization, 
though so far superior in its intellectual progress, 
was really no improvement on the first and second. 
All these civilizations must be regarded alike, and 
denominated alike. They were all Heathen, all 
Pagan : that is, all were founded on the theory that 
the Majority of mankind were slaves, and the 
Minority their natural masters. Consequently, the 



EUROPE, 13 

Religions and Governments of each were created and 
constituted with the sole view of maintaining this 
state of things. 

In the third civilization, it is true, we meet for the 
first time new words of grave import — we hear of 
Republics and Democracies. But, on close inspection, 
we discover that they had no reference to any Govern- 
ment in which the masses had any share : they were 
but new names for the only Government ever known 
in the world — a Government directed not merely by 
the intellect of the few, but one in which the interests 
of the many were unrecognized and disregarded. 

It was not till the fourth civilization appeared that a 
new principle was born, a new doctrine was taught, 
and a new element introduced into the world — destined 
inevitably, in process of time, to change entirely the 
face of things, and to verify the words of St. Paul : — 
^' Old things are passed away ; behold, all things are 
become new." 

This, however, shall be considered under its appro- 
priate head. Meantime, the rise and growth of two 
great communities will be concisely reviewed as illus- 
trative of the character of the third civilization. 



GREECE. 

The first occupation of tlie peninsula afterwards 
known as Greece, was by barbarous tribes — the Pel- 
asgians from Asia. Emigrants from Egj^pt and 
Phoenicia followed with the germs of civilization. 
Then came the Hellenic tribes from Caucasus about 
1700 B.C., who seized on the country, which was 
named after one of them, Greece. The Caucasians 
are said to be the first white men who entered 
Europe. More Egyptians and Phoenicians followed ; 
amongst whom were Cecrops, who founded Athens 
1643 B.C., and Cadmus, wdio is supposed to have brought 
the alphabet of Phoenicia into Greece. During 
this period. Agriculture and the Arts made advances ; 
Laws and Institutions were established ; and a Reli- 
gion modelled on those of Egypt and Phoenicia was 
founded. Then succeeded the "Heroic Age," from 
1500 to 1200 B.C., signalized by the fabulous exploits 
of Hercules, Theseus, and Jason, the foundation of the 
Olympian Games, the establishment of the Amphic- 
tyonic Council (a Congress of the Confederacy), and 
ending with the Trojan War. Next followed the 
'^ Middle Age," when for two centuries constant wars 
prevailed, throwing back the progress of the country. 
To this succeeded the rise of that famous civiliza- 
tion which is still the wonder of tlie world. About 900 
B.C. the marvellous poems of Homer appeared; and 
about this time, too, manners began to grow milder, 
religion more esteemed. Lycurgus appeared in 898 



GREECE. 1 5 

B.C. in Sparta, and established some wise principles of 
legislation. 

The renown of Greece, however, is chiefly identi- 
fied with Athens, the capital of Attica. The earliest 
Government of this famous city was Monarchical. 
After a period of some 500 years came the Aristocratic 
regime, divided into three periods : in the first period 
the Archons (magistrates) being elected for life, in 
the second for ten years, and in the third for one year. 
This lasted some 562 years. 

It was near the close of this period, in the year 
593 B.C., that Solon, who was then sole Archon, 
made a Constitution, wliich, considering the epoch, 
is a marvellous production. By this Constitution, 
Sovereign Power was vested in an assembly of citizens, 
classified according to income. As a check upon 
this body, he created a Senate, with which he asso- 
ciated in political power the Areopagus, or Supreme 
Court. This remarkable structure skilfully blended the 
Democratic and Aristocratic elements, but ignored the 
Monarchical — an omission which led to its ruin. Solon 
also repealed the cruel laws of Draco, and substituted 
a milder code. All these beneficent institutions were 
overthrown in ten years by Pisistratus, and Solon died 
of patriotic grief. 

For the fifty years following, Pisistratus first, and 
afterwards his sons, exercised dictatorial power. * 
Then began the Democratic epoch, or what was called 
the Republic, which existed for 364 years. 

The Athenian Republic, which all the other repub- 
lics in Greece resembled, was somewhat singular in 
its organization. The inhabitants were divided into 

* The first hospital for wounded soldiers in the world was founded 
at Athens by Pisistratus. Loiiis the XIV. founded the first in France, 
over 2000 years later — the Hdpital des Invalides at Paris. 



1 6 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

three classes — the citizens, the freedmen, and the 
slaves. The citizens only had the franchise. Their 
vote elected the nine Arclions, or executive magi- 
strates, made the laws, and decided on peace and 
war. This looks like the Universal Snffrage of our 
days ; but when we compare the number entitled 
to vote with those not so privileged, it will be seen 
how far it was from a Democracy as now under- 
stood. At no time in Athens were there more than 
20,000 citizens or voters to some 350,000 non-voters. 
The latter were mostly slaves, and were occupied 
in the avocations now followed by our middle and 
lower classes. These slaves were all of the same 
colour and race as their masters. Thus it was the 
Minority who governed. '' Athens," says De Tocque- 
ville, " with her universal suffrage, was after all merely 
an aristocratic republic, in wdiich all the nobles had 
an equal right to the government." * 

Soon after the so-called Republic had been in- 
stituted, the wars against the Persians began, and 
lasted some forty years. Happily the Greeks came 
forth victorious from this conflict, else the dawning 
civilization of Europe would have been submerged in 
Asiatic barbarism. 

The culmination of Athenian glory and power was 
reached on the close of these hostilities. Then 
appeared that wonderful galaxy of great men whose 
fame has never been eclipsed — to select only a few — 
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, in Philosophy ; Herodotus, 
the father of History, followed by Xenophon and 
Thucydides ; ^schylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and 
Aristophanes, in the Drama ; Phidias and Apelles, in 
the Arts ; Hippocrates, the father of Medicine, 

* See vol. ii. p. 73. 



GREECE, I J 

The three greatest intellects of Greece, and whose 
influence over succeeding ages was permanent, were 
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. A single word of 
these profound thinkers, who lived in an epoch no 
less than 400 years before Christ. 

Socrates was the author of the first code of Morals 
that appeared in Europe.* In this he admirably de- 
fined the different virtues. He declared the practice 
of good was the only means to happiness ; proved by 
new arguments the existence of a God, and the im- 
mortality of the soul ; denounced the frivolous philo- 
sophy of his time, chiefly aiming at the Sophists ; 
and laid down that the true study of mankind 
was man. His boldness alarmed the Government, 
and he was condemned to death, on the charge of 
attacking the Established Religion, and promulgating 
New Divinities. His escape from prison was planned 
by his friends; but he declared that ^Hhe laws 
should not be disobeyed," and drank the poison 
whilst discoursing calmly on the soul.t 

His disciple, Plato, whether alarmed at the fate of 
his master, or from the constitution of his mind, gave 
himself up to abstract speculations. He was the father 
of Metaphysics ; and sought to prove that man was the 
mere product of '' ideas." He declared in one of his 
discourses that " reason was the true principle of 
man's nature, although in the present existence there 
is mingled with it a foreign element — matter, which, 
by obstructing its development, becomes the cause of 
man's falling short of perfection." His most famous 

* Confucius, who died in China, 479 B.C., just before the birtli of 
Socrates, is regarded by some as the first writer on Morals. 

t "Virtue," said Socrates, "was the intelligent performance of 
duties, whose scope man may arrive at by a study both of his own 
nature, and of the laws of an all-wise Creator discoverable in the system 
of the Universe. In thi.s pursuit happiness is inseparable from virtue." 

B 



1 8 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

book was a description of the " Ideal Republic," in 
which he launched many crude theories that have be- 
come the source of modern Socialism. His writings 
are remarkable for sublime conceptions, moral purity, 
and a style never surpassed. Hence liis appellations of 
the "" Homer of philosophy," the ^' Divine Plato." In 
his " Republic" he uses these striking words: — "That 
as an individual cannot be at peace with himself ex- 
cept by the harmonious adjustment of all his faculties, 
wherein each, is allowed its due weight ; so in the 
whole world^ happiness is proportionate to justice; and 
each individual derives the greater benefit from the 
community the more complete the harmony is in 
which he lives with all his fellow-citizens." 

Beyond a doubt, the master-mind of antiquity was 
Aristotle. All the knowledge then existing he pos- 
sessed, and vastly augmented it. For many centuries 
his works constituted the limit of all learning, and no 
one questioned his authority. Though the disciple of 
Plato, he rejected his master's ideal doctrines, and 
endeavoured to establish science on the solid ground of 
facts rather than on mere ideas. Philosophy, he said, 
was the science of cause and effect. He is attacked 
by the moderns for having employed the deductive 
method by reasoning from hypotheses; but it must 
be remembered how much easier it was for Bacon in 
the seventeenth century of our era to use the inductive 
method by reasoning from experiment than it was for 
Aristotle some three centuries before Christ, when so 
few facts were known. His work on Looic he called 
" Organon^'' as Logic was the organ of all science : it 
was the first complete code on that topic. His works 
are too numerous to detail ; but they embrace essays 
on Rhetoric, Poetry, Art, Morals, Politics, Natural 



GREECE. 19 

History, Anatomy, Astronomy, Physics, Psychology, 
Metaphysics, Theology. In Psychology, he endea- 
voured to classify the faculties of the soul, which, he 
said, was the hidden power that gave life, and which 
he called intellect. In Theology, he demonstrated the 
Divine existence on the continuity of movement, and 
said God was the supreme goal or end of all things, 
to which all tended, all aspired. In Art, he said the 
beautiful was only found in the imitation of nature. 
In Morals, he declared virtue was to be found in the 
equilibrium of the passions. In Politics, he asserted 
that the final aim of society was utility — a bold doc- 
trine in those days. His works on Zoology and Com- 
parative Anatomy are declared by Cuvier never to have 
been exceeded for accuracy and depth. 

This is but a brief and superficial sketch of this 
stupendous intellect. * If Bacon is considered a pheno- 
menon in the seventeenth century, what must we think 
of Aristotle, who lived upwards of nineteen centuries 
before him? Philip, King of Macedonia, paid him a 
just compliment when he asked him to superintend the 
education of his son, afterwards Alexander the Great, 
declaring that ^^ he was not so proud of having a son 
as he was of having Aristotle for his tutor." The 
philosopher afterwards accompanied Alexander in his 
Asiatic conquests, and gathered new materials of 
knowledge. He finally established himself at Athens; 
but being accused of impiety, he abandoned the city, 
saying " he wished to spare the Athenians a new 
crime, already guilty of the death of Socrates." 

A conspicuous feature is apparent alike in the 

* The works of Aristotle were not published till nearly two centuries 
after his death, having been concealed by his admirers. Apellicon dis- 
covered and published them about a hundred years before Christ. 



20 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

writings of each of tliese great tliinkers. They 
all believed in the progress of mankind ; but they 
were compelled, from fear of death, to discuss the 
moral perfection of man rather than his political 
elevation. In commenting on Grecian philosophy, 
Macaulay sa3^s sneeringly: — ''The ancient philosophy 
dwelt largely in theories of moral perfection, which 
were so sublime that they could never be more 
than theories ; in attempts to solve insoluble enigmas ; 
in exhortations to the attainment of unattainable 
frames of mind. It disdained to be useful, and 
was content to be stationary." The reproach is 
unjust ; for in those days, as for long centuries after, 
thinkers who ventured to enlighten mankind as to 
their political debasement simply challenged martyr- 
dom. All they could do was to declare that man was 
capable of the highest moral development. It is 
clear, I think, that these Greek philosophers believed 
in man's future political regeneration. It was more than 
two thousand years later before it could be safely de- 
clared that '^ all men were born free and equal."* 

Fearing to fatigue the reader, I will but add that the 
theories of these three great masters created a profound 
intellectual movement. Several of their pupils founded 
Schools of Philosophy. I can only notice the Stoics, 
who asserted that reason alone should govern man, 
and the Epicureans, who retorted that the passions 
were better guides than mere reason. In a note will 
be found a tabular statement of these doctrines and 
their application.! 

* American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. 

+ Stoical system made reason supreme over the passions. 

Love of money, subdued by reason, produces prodigality, 
„ war, „ „ ,, cowardice 

„ women, „ „ „ celibacy. 



GREECE. 2 1 

The rule of Pericles, wliicli lasted some thirty 
years, witnessed the last bright page of Grecian 
civilization.* Civil wars then broke out between 
the rival states, and these enabled the ambitions 
Philip, King of Macedonia, to subject the whole 
of Greece to his sway. Demosthenes, the Athenian 
orator, launched his thunderbolts in vain. In 
spite of his furious Philippics., Grecian indejjend- 
ence fell. Alexander the Great maintained the 
supremacy his father had won. The efforts made 
by the Greeks to recover their freedom w^ere con- 
stantly baffled by civil discords, until the Romans 
attacked them, and converted Greece into a Roman 
province under the name of Achaia, in 146 B.C. 

The religion of Greece was imported from Asia 
Minor and Egypt, but it was greatly modified and 
refined. Polytheism prevailed ; but the gods were not 
mere hideous creations to inspire terror, as in India; 
nor were they worshipped in the forms of animals and 

Love of knowledge, subdued by reason, produces credulity. 
,, religion, „ „ ,, atheism. 

Epicurean system made passions supreme over reason. 
Love of money, uncontrolled by reason, produces avarice, 
war, „ „ ,, anarchy. 

„ women, „ „ ,, licentiousness. 

„ knowledge, „ „ ,, Utopias. 

„ religion, „ „ ,, fanaticism. 

In contrast to the above systems might be added a table where 
reason and the passions are balanced. 

Keason and. love of money produce prudence. 
„ „ war, „ courage. 

„ „ women, „ marriage. 

„ „ knowledge, common sense. 

„ „ religion, „ worship. 

* During this epoch, more than in any previous one, Greek colonies 
sprang up in Italy, Gaul, and Hispania. At Nismes, in the south of 
France, Grecian busts and statues of great beauty are frequently dug 
up, which prove that the colonists brought their native love of art with 
them. Nismes was afterwards occupied by the Romans, but the relics 
of Komaa art are far inferior to those of their predecessors. 



22 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

plants, as in Egypt. The Greek religion was a sort 
of protest against the monstrous inventions of the 
Asiatic imagination ; and their deities were but 
a higher type of humanity, endowed with super- 
natural attributes, greater knowledge, strength, and 
beauty, but appealing rather to the love than fear of 
their worshippers. The religion of the Greeks, like 
their drapery, was easj^-fitting and graceful, and 
neither incommoded their pursuits nor disturbed their 
consciences. 

It must be seen at a glance how much all succeed- 
ing nations owe to the intellect of Greece. Various 
authors account in various ways for the amazing 
development to which it attained in form, variety, 
and depth. 

It should be observed that the two civilizations 
that preceded were both the products of tropical 
countries ; where, as already shown, abundant food 
led to excess of population, to poverty and ignorance. 
Furthermore, tropical countries are characterized by 
certain material phenomena, such as earthquakes, 
pestilences, hurricanes, which inspire wonder and 
terror, and thus encourage superstition. Besides 
these dangers incidental to tropical climates, there 
was a sublime grandeur in the aspects of nature in 
all those countries where civilization began, that 
impressed on their populations a sense of awe and 
helplessness. The vast mountains, mighty rivers, 
endless forests, interminable jungles, scorching 
deserts, together with the multitudes of animals and 
reptiles destructive to life, could not fail to indicate 
to man his feebleness and inability to cope with 
natural forces. In this way the mind was filled with 
images of the grand and terrible, and reduced to a 



GREECE, 23 

timid and anxious state. Surrounded by dangers they 
could neither understand nor avoid, the imagination 
of man became inflamed ; and a belief in supernatural 
intervention grew up. The mysterious and the invisible 
were thought to be present ; and the emotions of fear 
and weakness thus engendered, laid the foundation of 
that superstition which was the basis of the religion, 
literature, and arts of those ancient countries. 

The influence of the external world on the mind 
cannot be questioned. If it be sublime and terrific, 
as in the tropical countries referred to, it makes the 
imagination predominate over the reason ; it inspires 
a spirit of reverence instead of one of inquiry, and, 
therefore, creates a disposition to neglect the investi- 
gation of natural causes, and to ascribe events to 
supernatural ones. It is in this way, argues Buckle, 
whose reasoning I have almost textually adopted, 
that the whole tropical civilization had to struggle 
with innumerable difficulties unknown to the tempe- 
rate zones where European civilization first appeared. 
In all the civilizations exterior to Europe, nature 
conspired to increase the power of the imagination, 
and weaken the authority of the reason. 

In Greece, where European civilization began, we 
see a country altogether the reverse of India. 
The works of nature, which in India are of startling 
magnitude, are in Greece far smaller, feebler, and 
less threatening to man. In Greece the aspects of 
nature are so entirely different that the very conditions 
of existence are changed. Dangers of all kinds were 
far less numerous than in the tropical countries. 
The climate was more healthy ; earthquakes, hurri- 
canes, wild beasts, more rare. This striking difference 
in the natural phenomena of the two countries gave 



24 AN HIS TORICA L RE TROSPEC T. 

rise to corresponding differences in the mental asso- 
ciations. The tendency of the surronnding pheno- 
mena was, in India, to inspire fear; in Greece, to give 
confidence. In India, man was intimidated ; in Greece, 
he was encom-aged. In India, obstacles of every sort 
were so numerous, so alarming, so inexplicable, that 
the difficulties of life could only be solved by appeal- 
ing to the direct agency of supernatural causes. In 
Greece, nature was less dangerous, less intrusive, and 
less mysterious than in India : consequently, the 
human mind was less appalled and less supersti- 
tious. Natural causes began to be studied ; and man, 
gradually waking to a sense of his own power, sought 
to investigate events with a boldness and success 
previously unknown. 

The effect of these different habits of thought on 
the religion, literature, and arts of these two coun- 
tries must be apparent. The works of nature in 
Greece being so much smaller and feebler, became 
more accessible — easier to experiment on, and to 
observe with minuteness. Thus an inquisitive and 
analytic spirit was encouraged ; and the Grecian mind 
was tempted to generalize the appearances of nature, 
and refer them to the laws by which they were 
governed. In Greece, therefore, ever^hing tended to 
exalt the dignity of man, while in India all tended 
to debase it. 

To sum up the whole, it may be said the Greeks 
had more respect for human powers, and the Hindoos 
more for superhuman. The first dealt more with 
the known and available, the second with the un- 
known and mysterious. In Greece, for the first 
time in the history of the world, the imagination was 
tempered and confined by the understanding : and the 



GREECE. 25 

gnm was complete ; for the inquiring and sceptical 
faculties of the understanding were cultivated, and 
the exuberance of the imagination checked. Whether 
or not the balance was accurately adjusted is another 
question ; but it is certain the adjustment was more 
nearlj^ arrived at in Greece than in any other previous 
civilization. Greek literature was, therefore, the 
first in which there was a deliberate and systematic 
attempt to test all opinions by their consonance with, 
human reason, and thus vindicate the riglit of man 
to judge for himself on all matters which are of 
supreme importance. 

From the pages of Buckle,* who investigated all 
authorities on the subject, 1 have abridged the fore- 
going explanation of the marvellous contrast between 
the civilization that sprang up in Europe and those 
that j)receded it in Asia and Africa. The summary of 
this great writer's line of argument has, 1 hope, been 
of sufficient length to enable the reader to form some 
general idea why it was that the human mind, freed 
from the shackles that cramped it in Asia and Africa, 
expanded so suddenly in Greece, and rose to such won- 
derful altitudes. Tiiere may have been strong and saga- 
cious intellects among the Priests and Kings of ancient 
India and Egypt ; but the reasoning and the authorities 
of Buckle prove that the tropical civilizations, how- 
ever productive they might have been of Poets and 
Artists, never could have produced a mind so acute, 
powerful, and profound as that of Aristotle. 

* It is evident that Buckle, in his analysis of the civilizations of 
Asia, Africa, and Europe, adopted the theories of Montesquieu, who, 
in his V Esprit des Lois (1748), was the first to point out how radically 
the institutions and character of a nation are influenced by its climate, 
soil, and food. 

2 



ROME. 

My chief purpose is accomplished in having shown 
the birth and prominent features of European civili- 
zation ; which was destined never wholly to die, 
though submerged in a deluge of barbarism. I will 
not, therefore, weary the reader with any details 
of lloman civilization, since it was nothing more 
than an inferior reproduction of what was borrowed 
from Greece. Rome produced Jurisconsults, Histo- 
rians, Orators, Dramatists, and Poets — all of great 
eminence, but none that eclipsed their masters. The 
conspicuous feature of Roman history was her war- 
like spirit, which was only satiated by the conquest 
of the then known world. In legislation or philo- 
sophy, however, Rome begot nothing new, and added 
nothing to the knowledge the genius of Greece had 
created. 

Two of the most remarkable intellects perhaps 
of the Latin world were Cicero, the Orator, and 
Tacitus, the Historian. Cicero was born in 107 B.C., 
and went to Athens in his twenty-sixth year to study 
his art. His greatest triumphs were achieved in 
oratory, but many of his writings prove that he was 
also a profound thinker. His work on Government, 
of which fragments only survive, displays a wonderful 
comprehension of the subject. I will quote one of its 
most striking passages, which I shall refer to here- 
after, when I come to speak of the Constitution of 
the United States. ^^ In my judgment," wrote Cicero, 



ROME. 2^ 

" that is the best constituted government which, in 
moderation, is composed of these three original ele- 
ments — the Royal, the Aristocratic, the Popular." * 
Of course no such model form of government had ever 
existed; but it is none the less impressive that Cicero 
gave the weight of his authority in favour of the 
blending of the three elements in all good govern- 
ment, f 

Hardly less remarkable, though written some 161 
years later, was the opinion pronounced by Tacitus, 
the greatest of Roman historians, born 54 years after 
Christ. In his ^'Annals," which extend from the death 
of the Emperor Augustus to that of Nero, he remarks 
— ^' All nations and cities must be governed eitlier 
by the People, the First men, or a Single ruler. A 
form of government constituted of these three it is 
easier to admire than to believe possible. If it 
should ever exist, it will be of short duration." % — The 
fate of the American Constitution will decide the 
accuracy of this confident prediction. 

Roman Jurisprudence has left enduring monuments. 
Three codes of law were compiled, the last of which 
is the most celebrated. This Code was drawn up after 

* " Statno esse optime constitutam rempublicam quae ex tribus generi- 
bus illis, ivgali, optiuio, et populari, tnodice confusa." — Cic. Fragm. 

+ There were before Cicero several Greek writers of eminence, 
Plato, Aristotle, and notably Polybius, who discussed the conjunc- 
tion of the three original elements as necessary for good government. 
Even as far back as 884 B.C., Lycurgns, in his marvellous Constitution 
of Sparta, attempted to combine these three elements. The opinion of 
Cicero, however, is entitled to special deference, not merely for his 
genius and learning, but that it was also founded on the experience 
and reflections of all the greatest writers and legislators who had pre- 
ceded him. 

+ " Nam cunctas nation es et urbes populus, aut primores aut sin- 
guli regunt, delecta ex his et coustituta reipublicse forma, laudari 
facilius quam evenire, vel, si evenit, haud diuturna esse potest." — Tac 
Ann. iv. 



28 ' AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

the Empire "had been divided, by order of Justinian, 
Emperor of the East, in 529 a.d. The Justinian 
Code was a digest of all the hiws and statutes of 
Justinian's predecessors, and received the name of 
Corpus Juris Cwilis — the body of the civil law — 
and has maintained its ascendency down even to our 
own times. 

Three different forms of government succeeded each 
other in Roman history : the first Monarchical, the 
second Consular, the last Imperial. 

Home was founded 753 B.C., and began with a 
Monarchical regime, which lasted 244 years. 

Then arose what is called the Republic, if such a 
term can be applied to a Government wholly Aristo- 
cratic. Two magistrates, called Consuls, were charged 
with the Executive power; and these were elected 
by the citizens assembled in Centuries — electoral 
bodies consisting of 100 citizens each. There were 
originally 193 Centuries, of which 188 were com- 
posed of those who possessed more or less income. 
Consequently the election of the Consuls was in 
the hands of those only who had property. Besides, 
none but a Senator could be elected Consul. Fur- 
thermore, in Rome, as in Athens, the citizens 
who had the franchise were but a Minority of the 
population ; as the Majority consisted of those who 
were free but not citizens, and of the slaves. The 
citizens were divided into Patricians and Ple- 
beians, or those who were noble and those who 
were not; but De Tocqueville, a great authority, 
remarks that '^ all the citizens belonged, in fact, to 
the aristocracy, and partook of its character." Speak- 
ing of the struggles between the Patricians and the 
Plebeians, he adds, '^ they were simply intestine feuds 



mOME. 29 

between the elder and tlie yonnger branches of the 
same family." Darin o^ the whole period of the Con- 
sulate, the Sovereign Power was leally in the hands 
of the Senate, a purel}^ aristocratic body. 

The Consular Government lasted 480 years, when the 
Monarchy was restored under Augustus Ctesar, the first 
Emperor, 29 B.C. At this time the Roman powder was 
at its height. The frontiers extended to Britain, the 
Elbe, the Rhine, the Danube, the Black Sea, the 
Euphrates, the Desert of Africa, and the Atlantic. 

The Roman Empire was divided in 364 a.d. into 
East and West. The Empire of the West was over- 
thrown by the barbarians under Odoacer, 476 a.d., 
after an existence of 505 years. Odoacer took the 
title of King of Italy. 



FOUR TH CIVILIZA TION. 

CHRISTIANITY. 

That the rise of Christianity gave a new direction to 
the history of the world is incontestahle ; and I am, 
therefore, full}^ justified in dating from this period the 
fourth civilization. It was the ideas which were born 
of Christianity that eventually prostrated the Roman 
Empire — the most powerful of all pagan civilizations. 
Surrounded by ruins, and resisted by savage hordes, 
the fourth civilization struggled on successfully 
through the wild anarchy of the Dark Ages, the 
chivalric splendour and lawless society of the Middle 
Ages, until, in modern times, it is acquiring a 
strength and preponderance quite irresistible. Even 
by the unbeliever, Christianity cannot be regarded 
otherwise than as a '^divine revelation; " for, whilst 
j)roclaiming the immortality of the soul, and the hope 
of future happiness, it leads inevitably to the moral 
and physical regeneration of man on earth. In a 
word, it is the conflict between Pagan principles and 
Christian doctrine that has agitated the world for so 
many centuries ; and though we may raise the cry 
of ^' Peace ! peace! " as did the false prophets in the 
days of Jeremiah, there will be no peace till all 
nations are organized on the basis of the fourth civili- 
zation. What that basis is, its character and solidity, 
will become clearer as this book advances. 



CHRISTIAXITY. 3 1 

In tlie 29tli year of the reign of Augustus Caesar, 
Christ the Saviour appeared on earth. The doctrines 
He propagated were wholly different from those of any 
religion then existing or previously known. My object 
is not to enter on any spiritual discussion of the new 
faith ; but simply to notice some of its important effects 
on the condition of mankind, and the history of the 
world. Whatever sceptics may say of its saving 
power hereafter, they cannot deny that Christianity 
brought into the world a principle till then not only 
never heard of, but utterly repugnant to the policy 
and interests of the Governments and Upper Classes of 
that period — I mean the principle of Equality. Christ 
was the first to preach that all men were equal in the 
sight of God. 

'^ The most profound and capacious minds of Greece 
and Eome," says De Tocqueville, *^were never able 
to reach the idea, at once so general and so simple, 
of the common likeness of men, and of the common 
birthright of each to freedom : they strove to prove 
that slavery was in the order of nature, and that 
it would always exist. Nay more, everything shows 
that those of the ancients who had passed from the 
servile to the free condition, many of whom have 
left excellent writings,* did themselves regard ser- 
vitude in no other light. All the great writers of 
antiquity belonged to the aristocracy of masters, or 
at least they saw that aristocracy established and un- 
contested before their eyes. Their mind, after it had 
expanded itself in every direction, was barred from 
further progress in this one ; and the advent of Jesus 



* ^sop, the Grecian fabulist, and Terence, the Eoman dramatist, 
were both slaves who had been given their freedom. 



32 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Christ upon earth was required to teach that all the 
members of the human race are by nature equal and 
alikey 

It was evidently the mission of the Messiah, not 
only to prepare the Souls of men for Redemption, 
but to bring about their Material Regeneration in this 
world. In every line and precept He rebuked the 
powerful and rich, and manifested profound sympathy 
for the poor and the lowly. He constantly promised 
the reward of eternal bliss hereafter to the weary and 
afflicted. ^^ The last shall be first, and the first shall 
be last," He said ; and albeit this had reference to a 
future state, still the efi'ect on the popular mind of 
His time was none the less infectious and stirring. 
Christianity has been called the religion of Democracy; 
and, assuredly, no Creed had ever before appeared that 
displaj^ed such deep solicitude for the poor and op- 
pressed. Justice and Benevolence were its corner- 
stones. "Whilst it enjoined on all to do unto others 
as they would have others do unto them, it also incul- 
cated forbearance and submission ; for the followers 
of Christ were told to love their enemies, and to do 
good to them that did them evil : if a man smote 
them on one cheek, they were to turn to him the 
other. The new Gospel ensured to believers the 
Beatitude of Paradise, but it also sought to promote 
Peace on Earth and Good-will amongst men. 

A Religion so full of consolation, charity, and love, 
was indeed a Revelation ; and was destined to inspire 
Humanity with new and more exalted aspirations 
both as to Earth and Heaven. It is no wonder the new 
Church spread rapidly amongst the masses, nor that 
it was resisted and persecuted by the defenders of 
the old beliefs. Up to this period all the religious 



CHRISTIANITY, 33 

Creeds that had prevailed were propagated by men 
belonging to the Governing Class, and used to main- 
tain the subjection of the lower orders. The Christian 
religion was the first that was preached by men of 
the humblest condition ; and its precepts not only 
opened to the weary and oppressed believer the portals 
of Heaven, but were calculated to effect his emanci- 
pation on Earth. 

Christianity appeared in a Koman province of Asia 
Minor, and thence spread onwards till it attacked 
Paganism in its stronghold, the great metropolis of 
Kome. An eloquent writer* gives an interesting 
sketch of the enthusiasm of the early Christian con- 
verts in Rome. Speaking of the Imperial city after 
midnight, he says — " And at such an hour there were 
men and women who stole forth from their various 
hou,ses, and with mantles covering their faces, hastened 
to a lonely spot in the suburbs, and entered the mouth 
of a dark cave. They passed through long galleries, 
moist with damp and odorous of death, for coffins 
were rano^ed on either side in tiers one above the 
other. But soon sweet music sounded from the depth 
of the abyss ; an open chamber came to view, and a 
tomb covered with flowers, laid out with a repast, en- 
circled by men and women, who were apparelled in 
white robes, and who sang a psalm of joy. It was in 
the Catacombs of Rome where the dead had been 
buried in the ancient times that the Christians met to 
discourse on the progress of the faith ; to recount the 
trials which they suffered in their homes ; to confess 
to one another their sins and doubts, their carnal 
presumption, or their lack of faith ; and also to relate 
their sweet visions of the night, the answers to their 

* Winwood Reade. 

2* 



34 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

earnest prayers. They listened to the exhortations of 
their elders, and perhaps to a letter from one of the 
apostles. They then supped together as Jesus had 
supped with His disciples, and kissed one another 
when the love feast was concluded. At these meetings 
there w^as no distinction of rank ; the high-born lady 
embraced the slave whom she had once scarcely re- 
garded as a man.* Humility and submission were 
the cardinal virtues of the early Christians ; slavery 
had not been forbidden by the apostles, because it was 
the doctrine of Jesus that those who were the lowest 
in this world would be the highest in the next. 
Slavery was therefore esteemed a state of grace, and 
some Christians appear to have rejected the freed- 
man's cap on religious grounds, for Paul exhorts such 
persons to become free if they can." 

The above extract refers to the period succeeding 
the death of the Saviour, and whilst the Apostles were 
still preaching the new tidings in the different Roman 
provinces. ^' In that age," says my authority, 
^* every Christian was a missionary. The soldier 
sought to win recruits for the heavenly host ; the 
prisoner of war discoursed to his Persian jailor ; the 
slave girl whispered the gospel in the ears of her 
mistress as she built up the mass of towered hair ; 
there stood men in cloak and beard at street corners, 
who, when the people, according to the manners of 
the day, invited them to speak, preached, not the 
doctrines of the Painted Porch" — the Grecian 
Schools — " but the words of a new and strange 
philosophy; the young wife threw her arms around 
her husband's neck, and made him agree to be 

* The slaves of Rome, like those of Greece, were mainly of the 
game colour and race as their masters. 



CHRISTIANITY, 35 

baptized, that their souls might not be parted after 
death. The disconsolate woman, whose age of beauty 
and triumph had passed away, was taught if she be- 
came a Christian her body in all the splendour of 
its youth would rise again. The poor slave, who 
'sickened from weariness of a life in which there was 
for him no hope, received the assurance of another 
life in which he would find luxury and pleasure when 
death released him from his woe." 

The same writer then goes on to say, ** Soon it 
was whispered there was in Rome a secret society 
which worshipped an unknown God. Its members 
wore no garlands on their brows; they never entered 
the temples ; they were governed by laws which 
strange and fearful oaths bound them ever to obey ; 
their speech was not as the speech of ordinary men ; 
they buried instead of burning the bodies of the 
dead ; they married ; they educated their children 
after a manner of their own. The politicians who 
regarded the Established Church as essential to 
the safety of the State became alarmed. Secret 
societies were forbidden by the law, and here was a 
society in whicli the tutelary gods of Rome were de- 
nounced as rebels and usurpers. The Christians, it is 
true, preached passive obedience and the divine right 
of kings ; but they proclaimed that all men were equal 
before God — a very dangerous doctrine in a community 
where more than half the men were slaves. The idle 
and superstitious lazzaroni did not love the gods, 
but they believed in them ; and they feared lest 
the ' atheists,' as they called the Christians, 
would provoke the vengeance of the whole divine 
federation against the city, and that all would be 
involved in the common ruin. Soon there came a 



36 AN HIS TO RICA L RE TROSPECT, 

time when every public calamity — an epidemic, a fire, 
a famine, or a flood — was ascribed to the anger of the 
offended gods. And then arose imperial edicts, popu- 
lar commotions, and the terrible street-cry of ' Chris- 
tiani ad hones' — to the lions with the Christians." * 

But these persecutions only served to fan- the flame ; 
for to those who believed in the New Religion, death 
was merely a surgical operation, with the certainty 
of entering into eternal happiness. The Christians, 
therefore, encountered it with joy ; and the sight of 
their cheerful countenances as tliey were led to exe- 
cution induced many to inquire what this belief could 
be that seemed to rob death of its terrors. 

The same writer remarks that the advancing Creed 
had no success among the great moralists and thinkers 
of the Roman Empire, who looked upon it as a new and 
noisy form of superstition, and rejected it with con- 
tempt. They knew the Pagan gods were only an idle 
fable, but they were none the less disposed to deride 
these strange " tales of a God who took upon Him the 
semblance of a Jew, and suffered death upon the 
gallows for the redemption of mankind." '^ In the 
Latin world, therefore," continues he, " the new 
belief was never the religion of a scholar and a 
gentleman. It was the creed of the uneducated 
people who flung themselves into it with passion. 
It was something w^iicli belonged to them, and to 
them alone. They knew nothing of their own great 
writers ; they had never tasted intellectual delights, 
for the philosophers scorned to instruct the vulgar 
crowd. And now the vulgar crowd found teachers 
who interpreted to them the Jewish books, who com- 

* I owe it to the author to say, that I may have occasion to modify 
or abridge hereafter certain passages from his book. 



chj^^istianity. 37 

posed for them a magnificent literature of sermons 
and epistles, a literature of enthusiasts and martyrs, 
written in blood and fire. Tlie lower classes had no 
share in the politics of the Empire, but now they had 
politics of their own which all could discuss — the 
people, women, and slaves. The barbers gossipped 
theologically. Children played at church in the 
streets. The Christians were no longer citizens of 
Rome. God was their Emperor : Heaven was 
their fatherland. They despised the pleasures of this 
life; they were as emigrants gathered on the shore, 
waiting for a wind to waft them to another world. 
They rendered unto Cfesar the things that were 
Caesar's, for so it was written they should do. They 
honoured the king, for such had been the teaching of 
St Paul. They regarded the Emperor as Grod's vice- 
gerent upon earth, and disobeyed him only when his 
commands were contrary to those of God. But this 
limitation, which it was the business of the Bishops 
to define, made the Christians a dangerous party in 
the State." 

Christianity, whose rise and growth are so vividly 
described in these extracts, continued to spread, until 
at last, in the year 313 a.d., the Emperor Constan- 
tine accepted it as the Religion of the State. But 
Paganism w^as still all-powxrful ; for though the 
Emperors were baptized as Christians, they con- 
tinued to be invested, like their heathen prede- 
cessors, with the office of Pontifex Maximus^ or 
High Pontifi* of the old religion. In the reign of 
Yalentinian, 364 a.d.. Toleration was enforced, 
and the professors of either Faith were forbidden to 
molest each other. The Emperor Theodosius, who 
died 396 a.d., went a step further, and ordered that 



38 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

the sacrifices to the old gods should not be paid by 
the State as hitherto. Yet as late as 410 a.d., when 
Alaric was battering at the gates of Rome, the Senate 
went up to the Capitol, and made sacrifices to their 
ancient gods, which the Bishop of Rome, Innocent L, 
doubtless witnessed. The fall of the Roman Empire, 
476 A.D., may be regarded as the end of Paganism, 
for Christianity then finally superseded it. 

The growth of the New Faith woukl have been 
certainly more rapid, but for the disputes that 
broke out among its professors. The most cele- 
brated, but not the first of these djsputes, was that 
of Arius, who, in 312 a.d., declared his disbelief 
in the Divinity of Christ, as do the Unitarians 
of our day. It was to extinguish this heresy that the 
first Christian Assembly took place. At the Council 
of Nice, in Asia Minor, 325 a.d., the various Bishops 
met,* under the Presidency of the Emperor Constan- 
tine, when the subversive doctrines of Arius were 
denounced. It was some three hundred years before 
the Sect disappeared, and during this interval other 
heresies sprung up.f 

One more quotation will be made from the author 
■already cited. " In the first age of Christianity,'' 
he says, "the Church was a republic. There was 
no distinction between clergymen and laymen. 
Each member of the congregation had a right to 



* The number of Bisbops at this time was estimated at 1800 — 1000 
in Greece, and 800 in Roman provinces. 

t From the year 264 a.d., when Sabellius and the Sabellians were de- 
nounced at tlie Council of Alexandria, down to 1843, when tlie "Free 
Church of Scotland" was founded by Chalmers, no less than fifty-five 
different leading sects have ari.sen, all professing Christianity, but 
each with some new modification of its own. Joe Smith, the Mormon, 
is the only one who got up another bible, written, as St Joe declared 
1830, by Mormon, a Jewish prophet, 600 years before Christ. 



CHRISTIANITY, 39 

preach, and each consulted God on his own ac- 
count. A committee of presbyters, or elders, with 
a Bishop, or chairman, administered the affairs of 
the community. 

" The second period was marked by an important 
change. The Bishop and presbyters, though still 
elected by the congregation, had begun to mono- 
polize the pulpit; the distinction of clergy and laity 
was already made. The Bisho|)s of the various 
Churches met together at councils or synods to dis- 
cuss questions of discipline and dogma, and to pass 
laws ; but they went as representatives of their respec- 
tive congregations. 

^' In the third period the change was more import- 
ant still. The congregation might now be appro- 
priately termed a flock. The priests were possessed 
of traditions which they did not communicate to 
the laymen. The Water of Life was kept, as it were, 
in a sealed vessel. There was no salvation out- 
side the Cliurch ; no man could have God for a 
Father unless he had also the Church for a mother; 
excommunication was a sentence of eternal death. 
From this time disputes were only between Bishops 
and Bishops ; the laymen followed their spiritual 
leaders, and often took up material weapons on their 
behalf. In the synods the Bishops now met as princes 
of their congregations ; and under the influence of the 
Holy Ghost {Spiritu Sancto suggereiite) issued im- 
perial decrees. The penalties inflicted were of the 
most alarming nature to those who believed that 
purgatory and hell-fire were at the disposal of the 
priesthood ; but those who had doubts on the subject 
allowed themselves to be damned with equanimity. 
When the Church, however, was united to the State, 



40 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

the secular arm was then at its disposal, and was 
rigorously used." 

These three periods of the primitive Church cover 
the interval from 4he rise of Christianity down to 
the conversion of Constantine — over 300 years. The 
same writer remarks tliat the Bishops of that day 
were all of them ignorant and superstitious men : 
but they did not all of them think alike; and as if 
to insure dissent, they set to work to define that 
which many believed had never existed, and which, 
if it had, could never be defined. They described the 
topography of Heaven. They dissected the Godhead, 
and expounded the Immaculate Conception. They, 
not only said that three was one, and that one was 
three, but they undertook to explain how this com- 
bination had been brought about. 

After the adoption of Christianity by Constantine, 
when it became the State religion, the Church is said to 
have lost much of its early Democratic character ; and 
the Bishops, who had formerly been the Tribunes of 
the people, became the creatures of the Crown. Just as 
in Asia and Africa ; just as in Greece and Rome in the 
days of Paganism, the heads of the Christian Church 
were no sooner recognized by the State than they were 
obliged to give it their support. It was in 313 a.d. 
that Constantine, by his edict at Milan, made Chris- 
tianity the religion of the Empire, and at the Council of 
Nice, 325 a.d., as stated, the New Faith was formally 
inaugurated.* Henceforward the Church made rapid 



* It was Constantine who first created ecclesiastical distinctions, and 
made Archbishops and Patriarchs, each with large jurisdictions and 
superior powers. The Patriarchate of Alexandria became the most 
powerful, but was swept away in the seventh century by the Mohana- 
medans. 



CHRISTIANITY. 4 1 

advances, and devoted itself to the accomplishment of 
three great works — the conversion of the barbarians, 
the overthrow of heresies, and the preservation and 
diffusion of civilization. 

The Goths, the Vandals, the Lombards knew the 
name of Christ at the close of the fourth century ; 
but they first embraced Arianism, afterw^ards return- 
ing to the true Faith. The Franks were converted 
under Clovis, the founder of the French Monarchy, 
in 496 ; the Anglo-Saxons at the end of the sixth 
century ; the Germans in the eighth century. The 
more distant populations of Northern Europe — the 
Danes, Swedes, Eussians, Poles, and Hungarians — 
were converted one after another from the ninth to 
the fifteenth centuries. 

In Asia and Africa, Christianity made slower pro- 
gress ; and in the seventh century, the followers of 
Mahomet nearly blotted it out altogether. The new 
Church had also to contend with internal dissensions. 
In the ninth century, a Schism broke out which sepa- 
rated the Church in the East, called the Greek Church, 
from the Church in the West, called the Latin or 
Roman Church. Almost at the same period, during 
the eighth and ninth centuries, raged the Iconoclastic 
Controversy, as to whether images of Christ and the 
saints should be exposed in the churches or not. 



DARK AGES, 

The Boman Empire of the West fell to pieces, as 
already stated, at the close of the fifth century. Pro- 
bably Constantine foresaw its fate when he removed 
the political Capital from Rome to Constantinople. 
During the fifth century, the Empire had been repeat- 
edly assailed by the Goths, Huns, and Vandals ; and 
finally the Herules under Odoacer in 476 a.d., the 
Ostrogoths in 493, and the Lombards in 568, became 
masters of the whole of Italy. During the same 
period, the most of Roman Britain was occupied by the 
Saxons and other northern tribes ; whilst the Franks 
took possession of Gaul. Thus the old Roman Empire 
of the West became the prey of the various German 
tribes. 

The new religion, unquestionably, precipitated 
the fall of this once great power. Proclaiming the 
equality of all men before God, Christianity over- 
threw Paganism by alienating the masses held iu 
slavery. Bereft of religious and moral support, the 
Imperial Government sought to maintain itself by a 
crushing despotism, till at last the barbarians were 
welcomed as liberators. 

The ensuing three centuries were a period of fright- 
ful anarchy, and are fitly described as the Dark Ages. 
The various barbarous tribes who possessed Italy and 
France were engaged in constant wars, and all traces 
of former civilization disappeared. 



DARK AGES. 43 

The zeal and courage of the followers of the 
Cross never faltered. They struggled to propa- 
gate the Faith, and to mitigate the ferocity of the 
times. To the Christian Priests, also, the world is 
indebted for the preservation of the literary relics of 
antiquity. Devoting portions of their time to culti- 
vation of the earth, and to religious instruction, they 
gave their leisure to copying the ancient manuscripts, 
which they hid away in the recesses of their abodes. 
Accordingly, it is not surprising to find that the 
Monasteries, which began to spring up in the sixth 
century, were respected even by the ruthless Chiefs of 
that epoch.* 

The advent of Charlemagne towards the end of 
the eighth century, changed the face of Europe. 
It was he who put an end to the invasions of the 
barbarians from the North and of the Moham- 
medans from the South, and thus saved the West 
of Europe. One after the other he overthrew all the 
barbarous Chieftains, and restored peace and order in 
France, Italy, Germany, and a portion of Spain. He 
then endeavoured to revive Learning and the Arts. 
He called over Alcuin, a humble Priest of Yorkshire 
(780), remarkable for his great knowledge, and with 
his aid founded numerous schools at Paris, Tours, 
and Aix-la-Chapelle, where Grammar, Arithmetic, 
Theology, and the Humanities were taught. He 
founded an Academy, or University, the first in 
France ; of which he was a member, and Alcuin the 
head. He built numerous harbours which initiated 
Commerce, and stimulated Agriculture : above all, he 

* Saint Benoit founded in 529, in the south of Italy, the first 
religious residence or monastery, and gave to his disciples who fol- 
lowed him thither the name of Benedictines, after his own appellation 
of Benedictus. 



44 A^ ^^S TORrCA L RE TROSPE CT. 

made tlie wise laws which are known under the title of 
"Capitularies." Among these 1151 ordinances may- 
be found precepts, moral advice, and religious exhorta- 
tion. As, for instance, " We must practise hospi- 
tality." " If any man meets a beggar who will not 
labor with his hands, let him beware of giving any- 
thing to him." " Let no man think that he can 
only pray God in three languages, for God can be 
worshipped in every tongue ; and the prayer of every 
man is answered if he asks for those things that are 
right." 

Appearing in the midst of a barbaric and law- 
less age, Charlemagne achieved every kind of great- 
ness — military, political, and intellectual. Out 
of a chaos of nations and institutions not only 
foreign but hostile to each other, he created a vast 
and pow^erful Monarchy which he governed with rare 
administrative skill and marvellous wisdom. His 
conquests vastly aided Christianity, for he introduced 
the New Eeligion among various wild tribes. He 
restored Leo III. to his Papacy, and was crowned by 
him " Emperor of the AVest" in the year 800.* 
Measured by the age in which he lived, and by his 
services to civilization, Charlemagne of France may- 
be considered as one of the greatest men of any epoch. 

His Empire crumbled to pieces in the hands of his 
descendants ; and from the fragments grew up three 
distinct Nationalities — France, Germany, and Italy. 
In each of these States, now so well defined, the 
population at that time differed widely in race, 

* After Constantine had removed to Constantinople, 330 A.D., the 
Roman Empire was divided into East and West, each governed by an 
Emperor. The title of " Emperor of the West" was revived by Leo 
III., and bestowed on Charlemajijne, who was really master of all the 
territory once tributary to the Roman Empire. 



■ DARK AGES. 45 

language, inanners, and usages. Many centuries and 
various events were necessary to weld and mould them 
into that national unity they now possess. 

Although the great work of Charlemagne seemed to 
perish with himself; though lawlessness and bloodshed 
appeared once more to resume their sway ; yet, from 
his advent we must date the Birth of Modern Society. 
*' From the time of Charlemagne," writes M. Guizot, 
^' the face of things changes ; decay is arrested, 
progress recommences. Yet, for a long time, the 
disorder will be enormous ; the progress partial, often 
hardly visible, and fi-equently suspended. This matters 
not. We shall lio longer encounter those long ages 
of disorganization, of ever-increasing intellectual 
sterility ; and, through a thousand sufferings, a 
thousand interruptions, we shall see power and life 
revive in man and society. Charlemagne marks the 
limit at which the dissolution of the ancient Roman 
world is consummated, and where the formation of 
modern Europe, of the new world, really begins. It 
was under his reign, and, as it were, under his hand, 
that the shock took place by which European society, 
turning right round, left the paths of destruction to 
enter those of creation." 

Before dismissing this dreary epoch known a-s the 
Dark Ages, it is worth remarking that the moral 
inundation which swept over Euroj^e at the end of 
the fifth century, was composed entirely of the 
Teutonic element. The Saxons who seized on 
Britain ; the Franks, or '' free men" of the Rhine, who 
occupied Gaul ; the Herules and Lombards who 
appropriated Italy ; the Goths who dashed into Spain, 
were all German tribes. 

The conquering Teutons, it must be remembered, 



46 AN HISTORx ^AL RETROSPECT. 

in addition to Roman colonies and Roman civili- 
zation, found a strong Celtic element in nearly all 
the countries which fell into their hands. For a 
time, the two elements, Teuton and Celtic, re- 
mained separate and hostile — the one in the pride 
of complete domination, the other in the despair of 
complete subjection. But these distinctions gradually 
ceased, and were almost wholly lost sight of. The 
Frank and the Gaul, the Saxon and the Briton amal- 
gamated, and together formed new nations neither 
Teutonic nor Celtic. The supremacy of the conquerors, 
however, did not wholly pass away. They still 
constituted the Upper Classes, and owned all the land ; 
whilst the conquered tilled the soil, and endured all 
the toil and humiliations of serfdom. 



THE NEW POLITY, 

I HAVE now done with general history. Hereafter I 
propose to call attention more especially to the career 
of the three countries — France, England, and the 
United States — which have marched in the van of the 
fourth civilization. Their struggles and sacrifices 
have contributed to undermine the political and social 
structure bequeathed by tlie ancient world, and to lay 
the foundations of a New Polity. This modern organi- 
zation has taken deep root in all of the countries 
named, and each has assisted in its development. 
The salient features of this new condition are Religious 
Toleration, Political Liberty, and Legal Equality. 
These are the fruits of that fourth civilization which 
communicated a new impulse to Humanity by declar- 
ing the Equality of all men before God. 

We observed, under the first, second, and third 
civilizations, that the various religious of each sus- 
tained the laws which vested all the power in the 
hands of the few, and consigned the many to eternal 
thraldom. The doctrines of Christianity, on the con- 
trary, imparted to the masses strong hopes of redemp- 
tion, both here and hereafter; and from that day to 
this, they have, blindly but earnestly, groped onwards, 
as if under divine impulsion, through endless vicissi- 
tudes, until they have emerged, as it were, on a plateau 
in each of the three countries in question, where no 
right, no privilege, no benefit is denied to any member 



48 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

of the community. All are guaranteed against wrong ; 
and none can be refused what his Intelligence com- 
mands : Property is diyided; Power is held in common; 
and the Capacities of all classes are unrestricted. 

Such a condition of things rectifies the injustice and 
cruelty of the ancient civilizations, and approaches as 
near an ideal state as the- infirmities of human nature 
admit. It is simply Utopian to imagine that any 
human society can endure, where ignorance and vice 
shall share the advantages achieved by intelligence 
and virtue. 

It cannot be without interest to contemplate the 
panoramic progress of France and England as, issuing 
from the mists of the Dark Ages, they entered upon 
their tempestuous voyage across the Middle Ages. 
As they advance, it will be remarked that the striking 
feature of each century is the gradual Rise of the 
Democracy. Under the ancient civilizations, wars and 
convulsions left society where they found it — the 
Minority monopolizing power and wealth ; the Majo- 
rity vegetating in endless bondage. In the six hun- 
dred years which comprise the Middle Ages, we shall 
see the men who under the old civilizations would 
have died slaves, begin to rise higher and higher in 
the political and social scale. In France we shall 
remark that the Crown appealed to the Democracy in 
its struggles with the Feudal Nobles ; whilst in Eng- 
land it was the Aristocracy which allied itself to the 
People to check the tyranny of the Monarchy.. If 
such combinations ever occurred in the ages preceding 
Christianity, the Masses derived no advantage ; for 
they seemed unconscious that any change in their 
condition was possible. It was not until the tidings 
went forth that all men were equal in the sight of 



THE NEW POLITY, 49 

God that the oppressed began to weary of their 
fetters. 

At the dawn of the Middle Ages but two classes 
existed in France — the Nobility and the serfs. The 
more intelligent of the latter by degrees created an 
intermediate position for themselves, and so reduced 
the inequality which had prevailed. From this Middle 
Class arose those various categories of men that gra- 
dually acquired importance in the State, and took 
position by the side of their former masters. From 
this Middle Class were recruited the members of that 
Christian Church which opened its ranks alike to 
poor and rich; and the being who as a serf would have 
languished in perpetual servitude, claimed his place 
as a Priest in the midst of Nobles. From this class, 
too, emerged the Legal Functionary who, as society 
became more civilized, and the relations of men more 
complicated, was required to interpret the laws and 
direct their application. From this class, also, 
sprang the Capitalist, who, profiting by the prodi- 
gality of the feudal Lords, accumulated wealth which 
opened the way to influence and power. From this 
class, likewise, was born the Minstrel, who, as years 
rolled on, was transformed into the Chronicler, and 
who finally became the Man of Letters and of Science 
whose magic wand, in the end, dispelled the France 
of the Middle Ages with its distinctions and its 
privileges, and established a community where Intel- 
lect alone predominates. 

In every century from the Christian era to the 
present, a contest has gone on to bridge the Gulf 
which existed in the ancient world between the 
minority and the multitude — in other words, to dimi- 
nish the distance and increase the equality between 



50 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

them. This fact is commented on by De Tocqnevillo, 
who says : — '' In perusing the pages of our history we 
shall scarcely meet with a single great event in the 
lapse of seven hundred years, which has not turned to 
the advantage of equality. The Crusades and the 
wars of the English decimated the nobles and divided 
their possessions : the erection of the communes intro- 
duced an element of democratic liberty into the bosom 
of feudal monarchy ; the invention of fire-arms equal 
ized the villain and the noble on the field of battle ; 
printing opened the same resources to the minds of 
all classes ; the post was organized so as to bring 
the same information to the door of the poor man's 
cottage and to the gate of the palace ; and Protes- 
tantism proclaimed that all men are alike able to 
find the road to heaven. The discovery of America 
ofiered a thousand new paths to fortune, and placed 
riches and power within the reach of the adventurous 
and the obscure." 

So uniform has been this tendency, so irresistible 
the continuous rise of this popular tide, that De 
Tocqueville calls it a "providential fact," as it has 
*' all the characteristics of a divine decree : it is uni- 
versal, it is durable, it eludes all human interference, 
and all events, as well as all men, contribute to its 
progress." Kor is this phenomenon peculiar to one 
countr}^, for it is alike manifest throughout Christen- 
dom. The same author, not more conscientious than 
profound, declares that ''in the Christian countries of 
the present day, the equality of conditions is more com- 
plete than it has ever been in any time or in any 
part of the world." It is only necessary to contrast 
Christendom and its moral and material progress, 
with the Heathen Nations and their benighted and 



THE NE W POLITY. 5 1 

inert condition, to prove that the World's Renovation 
dates from Christianity, the origin of the New Polity. 

The discovery of America yielded more than mere 
"wealth, as suggested by De Tocqueville, to the adven- 
turer. It served a higher purpose. It provided a 
tvilderness where the representative of the Middle 
Class, putting his faith in the equality before Grod the 
Messiah taught, could go and found a Polity based on 
the same principle applied to earth. There, at least, 
no obstructions would be raised by the cunning of the 
few to the welfare of the many. There neitlier Mon- 
archies, nor Feudal Systems, nor Established Creeds, 
would prevent the deliberate essay -^f an experiment 
wholly untried. To this desolate region the Puritan, 
with the New Testament in his hand, wended his 
solitary way, and piously proceeded to lay the corner- 
stone of a political and social Fabric, where all men 
might dwell together, enjoying the benefits of willing 
Co-operation, but where none would be suffered to use 
his intellect, power, or wealth to the injury of the rest. 
Over the portals of this novel Edifice, since grown to 
stately proportions, was inscribed the comprehensive 
doctrine to which it was dedicated : — *' And as ye 
would that men should do to you^ do ye also to them 
likewise. ^^ 

This Hegira of the Puri'^ans was the grandest event 
of the seventeenth century, so prolific of marvels ; 
and in due course of this Retrospect we shall cross 
the Atlantic with that devoted band of fanatics who, 
regardless of danger, and indifferent to wealth 01 
power, sought the shores of an unknown world to 
plant an Idea which they believed had come of 
God. 



FRA N CE. 



FRANCE, 

MIDDLE AGES, 

The epoch known as the Middle Ages dates from the 
teiath to the sixteenth centuries. The most prominent 
feature of this period was the Feudal System, which 
may require a word or two of preliminary explanation. 

The Feudal system is regarded by some as a Military, 
by others as an Aristocratic institution. It may be 
fairly regarded as both, for while it was Military in its 
origin, it became Aristocratic in its development. 

The rise of Feudalism dates from the parcelling out 
of the conquered territory of the Koman Empire 
amongst the invading tribes, whose King or Chief 
iirst chose his portion, and divided the rest among 
his captains. These, in their turn, made concessions 
of land — first called beiiefines^ and afterwards fief 6^ — 
to their soldiers, on condition that they and their 

* Fiffs. — In modern Latin, feodum ; from the Saxon fee, salary; 
and od, property — whence feudality or feudulisui. This word designated 
the land given in recompense for military service by a chief to his 
soldiers. The word Jief was employed for the first time in a chart of 
Charles le Gros, in 884, to designate the concessions described, which, 
up to the ninth cetitury, had been called hcntfices — in J^atin, benejiciuin. 
The fit^fs were divided into the great fiefs, or teudal peerages ; then into 
single fiefs, which derived directly from the crown ; and double fitfs, 
whose owners did not derive from the crown, but from his first suzerain 
or lord, who was himself most likely the vassal or feudatory of some 
other suzerain or lord more powerful. The niimber of fiefs in France 
varied in this way to an endless extent. 



56 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

heirs should do military service, and make payments 
of money or produce. 

Thus every tenant, it will be seen, was bound to 
render military and pecuniary service to his landlord, 
and became in fact a slave, as his life and labor were 
at the command of the landowner. The recipient 
of the land was called a vassal, and the donor was 
styled the Suzerain or Lord. This same Suzerain was, 
in his turn, the vassal of the Crown for the land con- 
ferred on him, and bound to render "faith and 
homage." 

All the land, both that of the great vassals of the 
Crown, who in the sixth century took the name of 
Barons, as well as that of their tenants, was held 
under a certain tenure or condition, which is familiarly 
known as the feudal tenure. This mode of holding 
land, which lasted during most of the Middle Ages, 
is the very opposite of the freehold system ; for the 
former is held on a condition, and the latter is free 
from all condition. The feudal and the freehold 
tenures are therefore just the reverse of each other. 

The gift of lands for military service may be 
traced to the time of the two Roman Emperors, 
Severus and Probus, 222 and 276 a.d. It was the 
immemorial usage of the German tribes. When, 
therefore, the Roman Empire fell into the hands of 
the victorious barbarians, Europe was organized on 
this territorial basis. 

The feudal tenure was first introduced into Gaul by 
the Franks, w^ho under their King, Clovis, 481 a.d., 
became the dominant people of Europe. * In the 

* Clovis drove the Romans, the Visigoths, &c., out of Gaul, which 
was thereafter called France, and founded the French monarchy, the 
first strong government that emerged from the ruins of the Itonian 
Empire. It broke up after his death in oil a.d. 



FRANCE. 57 

course of two centuries many of these great land- 
owners in France became so rich and powerful as 
to threaten the Monarcliy. They were constantly 
engaged in wars with each other : and the stronger 
seizing on the land of the vanquished, so added to 
his possessions and to the number of his retainers 
or vassals. In 715 a.d., Charles Martel, one of these 
territorial Lords, actually governed France under the 
name of " Mayor of the Palace ;" and his son, Pepin 
the Short, in 752 a.d., deposed the King, Childeric 
III., and had himself proclaimed in his place, becom- 
ing the Founder of the second French dynasty. 

From the time of Clovis, the Royal Power became 
constantly weaker from the usage of dividing the 
Kingdom among the various heirs, until, as just 
related, one of the feudal Lords was able easily to 
seize on the Monarchy. Charlemagne, one of the 
sons of Pepin, raised the Monarchy by his genius 
to such a height as utterly to eclipse the rivalry 
of the great feudal Chiefs ; but on his death, his 
Kingdom was again split up, and the Royal Power 
once more declined. The successors of Charle- 
magne were all weak men, on whom the feudal Chiefs 
were able to impose their own terms. About 876 
A.D., they forced Charles the Bald, grandson of 
Charlemagne, to declare their estates hereditary. 
They even went further, and succeeded in causing the 
government of the various provinces of the Kingdom,, 
which were all in their hands, to be also declared 
hereditary. 

We now enter the Middle Ages in France, the subject 
of this chapter. From this time the power of the lead- 
ing Barons became so great that they treated the Royal 
Authority with contempt. In 987 a.d., one of the 

3* 



58 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

feudal Chiefs, Hngli Capet, got himself declared King 
by his vassals, on the death of Louis V., the Feeble, 
the last King of the second dynasty. But Hugh 
Capet also found his Sovereignty almost as limited a3 
that of the dynasty which he had dispossessed. He 
was nominally King of France, but beyond his own 
domains his supremacy was ignored. 

At this period France was divided into numerous 
territories called Duchies and Counties, at the head of 
which was one of these feudal Barons ; who was styled 
Duke or Count according as his territory was either 
a Duchy or County. These titles were of Roman 
origin, but the Kings of the Franks adopted them with 
a different signification. They were now applied to 
territory, and denoted its extent; for a Duchy was 
usually larger than a County. At the beginning of the 
tenth century, then, the whole of France was owned by 
various Dukes and Counts,* who were the hereditary 
possessors of their lands, wholly independent in their 
jurisdiction, and exercising, by consent of the Crown, 
the rights of Sovereignty. They coined money, levied 
taxes, and, when interest or passion dictated, made 
war on each other.! Finally, to guarantee their 
power and wealth, they established Primogeniture 
towards the end of the tenth century, so that their 

* The title of Marquis was rare at this period, and was chiefly 
honorary. It was given to the owners of land presented by the King 
with letters patent. 

f With a view to check the barbarous hostilities constantly raging 
between the feudal nobles, the Church induced them to consent to a 
Buspension of arms during the days dedicated to religious services. 
I'his was called La Pa'ix de Dieu, and began in 1041. Louis IX., in 
his rei-^n, 1226-1270, issued an ordinance that forty days must eiap.-ie 
after the offence was given before any conflict should begin. This was 
called La Quaraiitaine du Roi. These " private wars" between the feudal 
barons went on up to the fourteenth century, when they were gradually 
checked by the progress of civilization and the growth of the roy^U 
power. 



FRANCE. 59 

lands and dignities might descend unimpaired to their 
eldest sons. 

No such organization had ever existed before. The 
Roman law created the rank of nobiles^ or known 
men^ but Primogeniture was never recognized. In 
G-reece, Egypt, and India, such a class as this 
feudal Aristocracy never appeared. It originated 
in France, as described, and spread over Europe, 
where it is still extant, though shorn of its ancient 
power and grandeur. Strange that France which 
first inaugurated an Hereditary Aristocracy in Europe 
should be the first to abolish it ! 

These feudal Nobles, in order to enhance their 
prestige, began, towards the close of the tenth 
century, to use family arms and crests to illustrate 
the exploits of themselves and their ancestors. 
Heraldry, which was simply the record of the pedigree 
of these families, came into fashion. Ceremonies, 
pageantries, and etiquette were gradually introduced 
to heighten the splendor and gratify the pride of the 
feudal Aristocracy. 

The institution of Chivalry, or Knighthood, was 
created in the ^eleventh century, as a new means of 
adding lustre to the Nobility. No one could be a 
Knight but a Nobleman, and those who received the 
honor had special privileges conferred. They could 
carry a banner, appear at tournaments,* wear a gold 

* The first tournament of the Middle Ages took place at Strasburg, 
in 842, at the interview between Louis of Gernumy and Charles I. (the 
Bald) of France. The Emperor Henry I., who died in 9:^6, was very 
fond of this species of amusement, and made several laws for its regu- 
lation, Geoftrey II. of Brittany was killed in a tournament at Paris, 
Avigust 19, 118l), Tournaments were introduced into England during 
the reign of Stephen, 1135-54. They were prohibited l>y Henr}' II., 
1154-89, and were again established in the rt^ign of Richard' I., 1189-99. 
Edward III. held a tournament at Dartford in 1330, and another at 
Windsor, January 19, 1334, soon after the institution of the Order of 



^^ 60 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

collar and gilded armor, assume tlie title of Mon- 



seigneur 



while tlieir wives were entitled to that of 



Madame. A Knight had to pass through three degrees 
of promotion — that of variety P^g^i ^^^d esquire — and 
received his sword of Knighthood- amid religious and 
military ceremonies, which were all meant to enhance 
the distinction.* 

The object of this feudal institution was partly 
to stimulate military a.rdor in the Nobles, partly to 
soften and improve the manners of a rough and war- 
like age. To cultivate a spirit of chivalry or courtesy 
towards women, the weak, the defenceless, a Knight 
was bound by oath alwavt? to draw his sword against 
injustice, to defend the widow and orphan, and to 
obey implicitly the orders of his Lady and his King. 
The Knight who failed in these duties was declared in 
a Court of Chivalry to be a felon, and lost his privi- 
leges.! During the period of the Crusades, Chivalry 

the Garter. Henry VIII. and the Duke of Suffolk maintained the 
field against all comers in May 1513. Henry II. of France lost his eye 
in a tilt with Count Montgomery, and died shortly afterwards of the 
wound, 1559. After this accident tournaments were discontinued ia 
France. 

A magnificent festivity, in imitation of the mediseval tournaments, 
was held by the Earl of Eglinton at his castle in Ayrshire, August 1839. 
The Marquis of Londonderry ofl&ciated as " King of the Tournament," 
and Lady Seymour as "Queen of Love and Beauty." Many of the 
guests were in ancient costumes, and the expense of the entertainment 
is said to have amounted to £10,000. The Emperor Napoleon III., 
then Prince Louis Napoleon, w^as one of the mimic warriors on this 
occasion. 

* " The young man, the esquire," says Guizot, " who aspired to the 
title of knight, was first divested of his clothes and put into the bath 
— a symbol of purification. Upon coming out of the bath, they clothed 
him in a white tunic — a symbol of purity ; in a red robe — a s^-mbol of 
the blood which he was bound to shed in the service of the faith ; in a 
saga, or close black coat — a s^'mbol of the death which awaited him as 
Well as all men." 

It may be added, the modern practice of duelling grew out of the 
institution of chivalry. 

t There were other classes of knights sworn to defend the Church 
against the infidels, as the Knights Hospitallers, founded in Jerusalem 



/ 



FRANCE, 6 1 

wus at its zenith, but declined with the Feudal 
System.* 

The feudal Lords, who lived with all the pomp the 
age could furnish in their chateaux or castles, had no 
other occupation than warfare with each other from 
motives of rivalry or plunder. Their amusements 
were the chase, or festivities at the castle. A few 
fects from the lives of some of them will illustrate the 
character of the Middle Ages better than any de- 
scription. 

William I., Duke of Normandy, forced the Count 
of Bretao'ce to acknowledofe himself his vassal in 928. 
He defeated the Count of Cotentin, who laid siege to 
Rouen, the capital of Normandy, in 933 ; defended 
King Charles the Simple against the Duke of Bur- 
gundy ; aided in restoring Louis IV. to the throne ; 
and, finally, was assassinated by the Count of Flanders 
in a conference proposed by the latter, in 943. 

Another AVilliam of Normand}^, in 1035, went into 
Italy with two of his brothers, and followed by three 
hundred Norman adventurers disguised as pilgrims. 
He first took service with the Prince of Salerno, and 
afterwards with the Greek Patriarch. He fought for six 
years to recover Sicily from the Infidels or Saracens. 
His last exploit was the capture of Calabria ; of 
which he declared himself the sovereign Count, divid- 
ing a portion of his conquests with his followers. 

in 1099, afterwards known as the Knights of Malta, who wore a white 
cloak with a red cross ; also the Knights Templars, founded also in 
Jerusalem by some of the Crusaders in 1118. This last order became 
very powerful and rich. Tliey were suppressed in France by Philip le 
Bel in 1307, and by the Pope Clement in 1312, Their number and 
wealth made them dangerous in the eyes of these rulers. 

* In our da3's, the title of Knight or Chevalier is given to those 
admitted to any order of honor, as the Orders of the Garter and Bath 
in England, the Legion of Honour in France, the Golden Fleece in 
Spain, &c. 



62 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

Roger, a brother of William, invaded Sicily, then 
occupied by the Saracens, in 1061, with a band of 
mercenaries ; and, after fighting for twenty-eiglit 
years, conquered the whole island, and restored the 
Christian religion, obtaining in 1098 from the Pope 
Urbain, for himself and successors, the dignity of 
Apostolic Legate, with all the powers of that high 
function. 

Simon de Montfort, Baron and Count, joined the 
Fourth Crusade in 1199, and distinguished himself in 
Palestine. On his return, he was elected by the 
Barons, Chief of the army against the Albigeois here- 
tics, who were commanded by the Count of Toulouse. 
He signalized himself by his courage and cruelties, 
overthrew the Count of Toulouse, 1213, and seized 
his estates, which Pope Innocent III. bestowed on 
him. Montfort was killed, 1218, by a stone whilst 
besieging Toulouse, which had again revolted. He 
was called the *' Maccabee" of his epoch. 

Guy de Dampierre, Count of Flanders and Peer of 
France, accompanied Louis IX. to Africa in 1270. 
Having married his daughter to Edward of England 
without the permission of Philip III., his Suzerain, 
tlie King declared war against him, defeated him, and 
seized on his castle and estates. Dampierre came to 
Paris to beg forgiveness of the King, but was im- 
prisoned at Compiegne, where he died. 

The Counts of Flanders were vassals of the King of 
France; but in 1297, the Count Guy de Dampierre re- 
volted against Philip lY., which led to the conquest 
of the County of Flanders, and its annexation to 
France. In 1302, however, the Flemish rebelled and 
defeated Philip, who was obliged to restore their feudal 
Counts. In 1337, the Flemish cities recognized Edward 



FRANCE, 6'^ 

III. of England as the King of France, wliich began 
a war of a hundred years between the English and 
French. The Seigneurie of Flanders afterwards passed 
over bj^ marriage to the House of Austria, which led 
to long wars between France and Austria.* 

John,' Count of St. Pol and Luxemburg, was in the 
service of the French King, but in sympathy with the 
Duke of Burgundy and the English. He was Governor 
of Paris for two years in the name of Henry Y. of 
England. It was he who took Jeanne d'Arc prisoner 
at Compiegne, 1430, and who sold her to the English 
for £10,000. He opposed the reconciliation of the 
French King and the Duke of Burgundy. His death 
occurred in 1446. 

Louis, Count of St. Pol, his nephew, was in the ser- 
vice of Louis XL of France, who made him Connetable, 
after giving him his sister-in-law as wife. Notwith- 
standing, he conspired with the Duke of Burgundy 
and the English against the King. Being convicted 
of this crime by the Parliament, he was beheaded, j 

The Duke de Guise, of the House of Lorraine, took 
a leading part on the Catholic side against the Pro- 
testants, and gave the signal for the massacres of St 
Bartholomew, 1572, by ordering the assassination of 
Admiral Coligny. He was afterwards assassinated by 
the King's Guards at Blois, 1588. 

The House of Montmorency, which took its name, 
as was the custom, from its estate near Paris, was 

* Flanders next fell into the hands of Charles V. of Spain, who in- 
cluded it in the United Provinces ; then it went back to Austria ; then 
returned to the French untler Napoleon. In 1814 it was ceded to the 
King of Holland, and in 1831 becauie the kingdom of Belgium. 

t It was in the magnificent castle of Count St. Pol, built in 1470, 
that Prince Louis Napoleon was confined for six years — 1840 to 1846. 
The wall of one of the towers of this castle is nine feet in thickness, 
and has these words engraved on it, "iJfort mieux ' — "My best." 



64 -4 -V H/S TO RICA L RE TROSPE C T. 

founded in 950 by Bouchard, one of the great Feuda- 
tories * of the Duke of France, Hugh Capet, afterwards 
King. He had the title of " First Christian Baron, 
and First Baron of France." This family boasted 
of having produced six Connitahles of France, twelve 
Marshals, four Admirals, several Cardinals, and a 
great number of Generals and Statesmen. It was 
also allied to most of the Royal Families of Europe. 
One of the Dukes of Montmorency, Henry II., born 
in 1595, was made Admiral at seventeen by Louis 
XIII. He inherited from his father the Government 
of Languedoc, one of the provinces of France. In 
the civil war between the Protestants and Catholics, 
1620, he defeated the Duke de Rohan, the Protestant 
leader. As the victorious Commander of the Fj-ench 
army in Piedmont, he was made a Marshal in 1629. 
Angry at not being made a Connetable, he conspired 
ao-ainst Louis XIII. , and raised a Revolution in Lan- 
g-uedoc, but was defeated. Covered with wounds, he 
was made a. prisoner, and executed at thirty-eight 
years of age. His wife retired to a convent. 

The House of Rohan, descended from the ancient 
Kings of Brittany in the west of France, held the 
rank of Princes. For this reason they bore the well- 
known device on their arms, '' Roi ne puis, Due 

* It was customary for one feudal noble to acknowledge himself the 
vassal of another, if he had received from him land called Jiefs, by which 
he was bound to fealty. In those days, any one wlio obtained land on 
the usual feudal conditions could sub-grant it ; so that the vassal to the 
first became suzerain to the last. This process of subinfeudation, as it 
was called, went on in France to a great extent, and, some writers say, 
created those habits of obedience or submission unknown in any other 
country. It is true that eveiy vassal in his turn was bound to obe- 
dience. The great baron, vassal to the king, was pledged to obey him 
as his suzerain. The next, who received land fiom the baron, was 
equally bound. This system, which lasted several centuries in France, 
Has affected the national character, and explains that submission to the 
Government of the day which is so remarkable. 



FRANCE, 65 

ne dai^ne^ Rohan suis " — ^' King I cannot be, Duke I 
disdain, Rohan I am." One of the Rohans, Henry, 
Prince de Leon, married the daughter of Sully, the 
celebrated Minister of Henry lY. At the death of 
this King, he became leader of the Protestants, and 
headed their wars against Louis XIIL He was de- 
feated at the siege of La Bochelle by Cardinal Riche- 
lieu, 1628, and banished. He then went to Venice, 
and became a General of the Republic in a war with 
Spain. He afterwards commanded a French army 
in the north of Italy, being restored to the favor 
of Richelieu. Finally, he joined Bernard, Duke of 
Saxe-Weimar, as one of the Generals of the Pro- 
testant army of Germany, and was killed in battle, 
1638. 

Tlie House of La Rochefoucauld, founded, as most of 
the preceding, in the eleventh century, produced many 
distinguished men. One of the best known is the Duke 
who figured in the War of the Fronde, 1648, and who 
was afterwards made Governor of the province of 
Poitou by Louis XIV. He was intimate in his latter 
j^ears with Madame de Sevigne. He refused to enter 
the French Academy, as he shrank from speaking in 
public. He is best known by his book of " Maximes," 
published in 1665, a work remarkable for the finesse 
of its style, and the boldness of its paradoxes. He 
asserted that '^ Self-interest is the only motive of 
human actions." 

The above sketches of some of the feudal Lords are 
taken at rand om from French Annals, and are not, 
perhaps, the most interesting, but they serve to 
illustrate the epoch. Similar portraits might be 
cited from the feudal history of the other countries 
of Europe, but would occupy too much space. The 



66 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

two following pictures of feudal life in Italy are 
striking. 

The House of Montferrat, in Lombardy, was 
founded by Alderame, created Marquis of Mont- 
ferrat in 967 by Otho I. of Germany. This family 
reigned over the Marquisate of Montferrat for nearly 
six hundred years. William, the sixth Marquis, 
joined Charles of Anjou of France in his conquest of 
Naples, and afterwards fought against the French 
King when he attempted to subjugate Lombardy. He 
subsequently seized on numerous Italian towns in the 
north, and added them to the possessions of his 
family. He was finally taken prisoner by the inhabi- 
tants of Alexandria, who revolted against him, and 
was shut up in an iron cage, where he died, after 
seventeen months of captivity, in 1292. Perpetually 
at war with various feudal Lords, especially the 
Yisconti and the Sforza, Lords of Milan, the family 
of Montferrat gradually declined in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, and disappeared in the person of 
John George, 1533, who died without issue. His fiefs 
passed to Frederick II., Marquis of Mantua, who had 
married his niece. 

In the fifteenth century, the feudal Barons of the 
Kingdom of Naples conspired against King Ferdinand, 
and endeavoured to put the Duke of Calabria on the 
throne; but afterwards they abandoned their design, 
and made their submission to the King as his loyal 
vassals. Twenty years afterwards, the Barons got up 
a new conspiracy, which Ferdinand discovered, and 
succeeded in defeating by inveigling the conspirators 
into his palace, and there assassinating them. One 
only, the Prince of Salerno, escaped. He took refuge 
at the Court of Charles V. of France, and promoted 



FRANCE. 6/ 

ardently the war against Naples, wliich ended in the 
overthrow of Ferdinand in 1495. 

From the above extracts, the reader may form some 
notion of the condition of Europe for some five hun- 
dred years and upwards — say, from the tenth to the 
fifteenth centuries — whilst the Feudal System was in 
the plenitude of its power. I cannot forbear, how- 
ever, making a quotation from a brilliant writer, 
whose graphic sketches convey a still more vivid idea 
of this interesting period — a period that gave birth to 
that Hereditary Aristocracy which even to the present 
day is so prominent and influential. The following 
extract from Mr AVinwood Eeade brings out in an 
impressive manner the notable features of the feudal 
regime, or '^ the Government of the Castle." The 
citation begins just at the moment when the Roman 
Empire was breaking up, and the German tribes were 
trying to force their entrance into the west of Europe, 
which hitherto had been under the subjection of the 
Eomans : — 

" The Ancient Germans — The Castle Kings — The Castle a 
Home — The Castle an Academy — Chivalry — The Serfi 
— Tournament — The Town, 

"The province of Gaul" — new France — "was taxed to death, 
and then abandoned by the Romans. The Government could 
no longer afford to garrison the Khine frontier ; the legions 
were withdrawn, and the Germans entered. 

" The invading armies were composed of free men, who, 
under their respective captain or heads of clans, had joined 
the standard of some noted warrior chief. The spoil of the 
army belonged to the army, and was divided according to 
stipulated rules. The king's share was large, but more than 
his share he might not have. When the Germans, instead 
of returning with their booty, remained upon the foreign soil, 



68 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

they partitioned the Land in the same manner as they par- 
titioned the cattle and the slaves, the gold crosses, the silver 
chalices, the vases, the tapestry, the fine linen, and the purple 
robes. An immense region was allotted to the king ; other 
tracts of various sizes to the generals and captains (or chiefs 
and chieftains), according to the number of men whom they 
had brought into the field ; and each private soldier received 
a piece of ground. But the army, although disbanded, was 
not extinct ; its members remained under martial law ; the 
barons or generals were bound to obey the King when he 
summoned them to war ; the soldiers to obey their ancient 
chiefs. Sometimes the king and the great barons gave lands 
to favourites and friends on similar conditions ; and at a 
later period money was paid instead of military service, thus 
originating rent. 

" They surrounded themselves with a body-guard of per- 
sonal retainers ; their prisoners of war were made to till the 
ground as serfs, and soon they reduced to much the same 
condition the German soldiers, and seized their humble lands. 
In that troubled age none could hold property except by 
means of the strong arm. Men found it difficult to preserve 
their lives, and often presented their bodies to some power- 
ful lords in return for protection, in return for daily bread. 
The power of the king was nominal ; sovereignty was broken 
and dispersed. Europe was divided amongst castles ; and in 
each castle was a prince who owned no authority above his 
own, who held a high court of justice in his hall, issued laws 
to his estates, lived by the court fees, by taxes levied on pass- 
ing caravans, and by ransoms for prisoners, sometimes obtained 
in fair war, sometimes by falling upon peaceful travellers. 
Dark deeds were done within those ivy-covered towers which 
now exist for the pleasure of poets and pilgrims of the pic- 
turesque. Often from turret chambers and grated windows 
arose the shrieks of violated maidens and the yells of tortured 
Jews. Yet castle-life had also its brighter side. To cheer 
the solitude of the isolated house minstrels and poets and 
scholars were courted by the barons, and were offered a peace- 



FRANCE. 69 

ful cliamber, and a place of honour at the board. In the 
towns of ancient Italy and Greece there was no farail}' ; the 
home did not exist. The women and children dwelt together 
in secluded chambers ; the men lived a club-life in the baths, 
the porticoes, and the gymnasia. But the castle lord had no 
companions of his own rank except the memb'ers of his own 
family. On stormy days, when he could not hunt, he found a 
pleasure in dancing his little ones on his knee, and in telling 
them tales of the wood and weald. Their tender fondlings, and 
their merry laughs, their half-formed voices, which attempted 
to pronounce his name — all these were sweet to him. And 
by the love of those in whom he saw his own image mirrored, 
in whom his own childhood appeared to live again, he was 
drawn closer and closer to his wife. She became his counsellor 
and friend ; she softened his rugged manners ; she soothed his 
fierce wrath; she pleaded for the prisoners and captives, and the 
men condemned to die. And when he was absent, she became 
the sovereign lady of the house, ruled the vassals, sat in the 
judgment-seat, and often defended the castle in a siege. A 
charge so august could not but elevate the female mind. 
Women became queens. The Lady was created. Within the 
castle was formed that grand manner of gentleness mingled 
with hauteur, which art can never simulate, and which ages of 
dignity can alone confer. 

*' The barons dwelt apart from one another, and were often 
engaged in private war. Yet they had sons to educate and 
daughters to marry ; and so a singular kind of society arose. 
The king's house or court, and the houses of great barons, 
became academies to which the inferior barons sent their boys 
and girls to school. The young lady became the attendant of 
the Dame, and was instructed in the arts of playing on the 
virginals, of preparing simples, and of healing wounds ; of 
spinning, sewing, and embroidery. The young gentleman was 
at first a Page. He was taught to manage a horse with grace 
and skill, to use bow and sword, to sound the notes of venerie 
upon the horn, to carve at table, to ride full tilt against the 
quintaine with his lance in rest, to brittle a deer, to find his 



70 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

way through the forest by the stars in the sky and by the 
moss upon the trees. It was also his duty to wait upon the 
ladies who tutored his youthful mind in other ways. He 
was trained to deport himself with elegance ; he was nurtured 
in all the accomplishments of courtesy and love; he was en- 
couraged to select a mistress among the dames or demoiselles ; 
to adore her in his heart, to serve her with patience and 
fidelity, obeying her least command ; to be modest in her pre- 
sence ; to be silent and discreet. The reward of all this devo- 
tion was of no ethereal kind, but it was not quickly or easily 
bestowed ; and vice almost ceases to be vice when it can only 
be gratified by means of long discipline in virtue. When the 
page had arrived at a certain age, he was clad in a brown 
frock ; a sword was fastened to his side, and he obtained the 
title of Esquire. He attended his patron knight on military 
expeditions, until he was old enough to be admitted to the 
order. Among the ancient Germans of the forest, when a 
young man came of age, he was solemnly invested with shield 
and spear. The ceremony of knighthood at first was nothing 
more. Every man of gentle birth became a knight, and then 
took an oath to be true to God, and to the ladies, and to his 
plighted word ; to be honourable in all his actions, to succour 
the oppressed. Thus, within those castle-colleges arose the 
sentiment of Honour, the institution of Chivalry, which, as an 
old poet wrote, made women chaste and men brave. The 
women were worsljipped as goddesses, the men were revered 
as heroes. Each sex aspired to possess those qualities which 
the other sex approved. Women admire, above all things, 
courage and truth ; and so the men became courageous and 
true. Men admire modesty, virtue, and refinement ; and so 
the women became modest, virtuous, and refined. A higher 
standard of propriety was required as time went on. The 
manners and customs of the dark ages became the vices of a 
later period ; unchastity, which had once been regarded as the 
private wrong of the husband, was stigmatised as a sin against 
society, and society found a means of taking its revenge. At 
first the notorious woman was insulted to her face at touriia- 



FRANCE, 71 

ment and banquet ; or knights chalked an epithet upon her 
castle gates, and then rode on. In the next age she was 
shunned by her own sex ; the discipline of social life was 
established as it exists at the present day. Though it might 
sometimes be relaxed in a vicious court, at least the ideal of 
right was preserved. But in the period of the Troubadours, 
the fair sinners resembled the pirates of the Homeric age. 
Their pursuits were of a dangerous, but not of a dishonourable 
nature ; they might sometimes lose their lives ; they never 
lost tlieir reputation. 

" We must now descend from ladies and gentlemen to the 
people in the field, who are sometimes forgotten by historians. 
The castle was built on the summit of a hill, and a village of 
serfs was clustered round its foot. These poor peasants were 
often hardly treated by their lords. Often they raised their 
brown and horny hands and cursed the cruel castle which 
scowled upon them from above. Humbly they made obeis- 
ance, and bitterly they gnawed their lips, as the baron rode 
down the narrow^ street on his great war-horse, which w^ould 
always have its fill of corn, when they would starve, followed 
by his beef-fed varlets with faces red from beer, who gave 
them jeering looks, who called them by nicknames, who con- 
temptuously caressed their daughters before their eyes. Yet 
it was not always thus : the lord was often a true nobleman, 
the parent of their village, the godfather of their children, 
the guardian of their ha[)piness, the arbiter of their disputes. 
When there was sickness among them, the ladies of the castle 
came down, bringing them soups and spiced morsels with 
their own white hands ; and the castle was the home of the 
good chaplain, who told them of the happier world beyond 
the grave. It was there also that they enjoyed such pleasure 
as they had.^ Sometimes they were called up to the castle to 
feast on beef and beer in commemoration of a happy anni- 
versary or a Christian feast. Sometimes their lord brought 
home a caravan of merchants whom he had captured on the 
road ; and while the strange guests were quaking for the 
safety of their bales, the people were being amused with the 



72 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

songs of the minstrels, nnd the tricks of the jugglers, and the 
antics of the dancing-bear. And sometimes a tournament 
was held: the lords and ladies of the neighbourhood rode 
over to the castle ; turf banks were set for the serfs, and a 
gallery was erected for the ladies, above whom sat enthroned 
the one who was chosen as the Queen of Beauty and of Love. 
Then the heralds shouted, * Love of ladies, splintering of 
lances, stand forth, gallant knights; fair eyes look upon your 
deed !' And the knights took up their position in two lines 
fronting one another, and sat motionless upon their horses 
like pillars of iron, with nothing to be seen but their flaming 
eyes. The trumpets flourished ; ' laissez aller,^ cried a voice ; 
and the knights, with their long spears in rest, dashed furi- 
ously against each other, and then plied battle-axe and sword, 
to the great delight and contentment of the populace. 

" In times of war the castle was also the refuge of the poor, 
and the villagers fled behind its walls when the enemy drew 
near. They did not then reflect that it was the castle which 
had provoked the war ; they viewed it only as an hospitable 
fortress which had saved their lives. It was, therefore, in 
many cases regarded by the people, not only with awe and 
veneration, but also with a sentiment of filial love. It was 
associated with their pleasures and their security. But iu 
the course of time a rival arose to alienate the aff'ections, or 
to strengthen the resentment of the castle serf. It was the 
town. 

" In the days of the Roman Republic, and in the first days 
of the Empire, all kinds of skilled labour were in the hands of 
slaves : in every palace, whatever was required for the household 
was manufactured on the premises. But before the occupation 
by the Germans, a free class of artisans had sprung up, in 
what manner is not precisely known ; they were probably the 
descendants of emancipated slaves. This class, divided iiito 
guilds and corporations, continued to inhabit the towns ; 
they manufactured armour ;ind clothes ; they travelled as 
pedlars about the country, and thus acquired wealth, which 
they cautiously concealed, for they were in complete sub- 



FRANCE. 73 

servience to the castle lord. They could not leave their 

property by will, dispose of their daughters in marriage, (ir 

perform a single business transaction without the permission 

of their liege. But little by little their power increased. 

When war was being waged, it became needful to fortify the 

town — for the town was the baron's estate, and he did not 

wisli his pru2:)erty to be destroyed. When once the burghers 

were armed and their town walled, they were able to defy their 

lord. They obtained charters, sometimes by revolt, sometimes 

by purchase, which gave them the town to do with it as they 

pleased \ to elect their own mngistrates, to make their own laws, 

and to pay their liege-lord a fixed rent by the year, instead 

of being subjected to loans, and benevolences, and loving 

contributions.* The Roman law, which had never quite died 

out, was now revived ; the old municipal institutions of the 

Empire were restored. Unhappily the citizens often fought 

among themselves, and towns joined barons in destroying 

towns. Yet their influence rapidly increased, and the power 

of the castle was diminished. Whenever a town received 

privileges from its lord, other towns demanded that the 

same rights should be embodied in their charter, and 

rebelled if their request Avas refused. Trade and industry 

expanded ; the products of the burgher enterprise and skill 

were offered in the castle halls for sale. The lady was 

tempted with silk and velvet ; the lord with chains of gold, 

and Damascus blades, and suits of Milan steel \ the children 

clamoured for the sweet white powder which was brought 

from the countries of the East. These new tastes and fancies 

impoverished the nobles. They reduced their establishments, 

and the discarded retainers, in no sweet temper, went over to 

the town. 

" And there were others who went to the town as well. 

In classical times the slaves were unable to rebel with any 

prospect of success. In the cities of Greece every citizen 

was a soldier. In Rome an enormous army served as the 

* Charters were granted to towns by the King only. Louis VI. was 
the first to give them, as related elsewhere. 



74 ^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

slave-police. But in the scattered castle states of Europe 
tbe serfs could rise against their lords, and often did so with 
effect. And then the town was always a place of refuge : the 
runaway slave was there welcomed ; his pursuers were duped 
or defied ; the file was applied to his collar ; his blue blouse 
was taken off ; his hair Avas suffered to grow ; he was made a 
burgber and a free man. Thus the serfs had often the power 
to rebel, and always the power to escape ; in consequence of 
which, they ceased to be serfs and became tenants. 

" The extinction of villeinage was not a donation, but a con- 
quest: it did not descend from the court and the castle; it as- 
cended from the village and the town. The Church, however, 
may claim the merit of having mitigated slavery in its worst 
days, when its horrors were increased by the pride of conquest 
and the hostility of race. The clergy belonged to the conquered 
people, whom they protected from harsh usage to the best of 
their ability. They taught as the Moslem doctors also teach, 
and as even the pagan Africans believe, that it is a pious 
action to emancipate a slave. But there is no reason to sup- 
pose that they ever thought of abolishing slavery, and they 
could not have done so had they wished." 



MONARCHY ASSAILS FEUDALITY. 

MIDDLE AGES. 

From the copious extract given, the reader can hardly 
fail to obtain a more familiar comprehension of the 
Feudal System. Tliat system he will now have learned 
was nothing else than the exercise of arbitrary power 
by the great landowners called feudal Lords. During 
the greater part of the Middle Ages, these Koblemen 
were wholly independent and irresponsible, acknow- 
ledging no law but force, and wielding despotic sway 
over their fiefs or estates ; masters equally of the 
property and lives of their tenants or vassals. " They 
were," says a distinguished writer, ^Msolated despots, 
each of whom was a sovereign in his own domains, 
doing what was right in his own eyes, giving no 
account of his actions, aud asking no opinion as to 
the nature of his conduct towards his subjects. In 
the course of time this system met with greater 
popular detestation than others which had reduced 
the people to more monotonous and lasting servitude. 
The peasants led a precarious and uncertain life, 
involved in all the quarrels of their chief, and endur- 
ing all the vengeance of his enemies. In the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries tliere were numerous peasant 
insurrections, in which atrocious crimes were per- 
petrated upon the nobles, their families, and retainers. 



76 . AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Tliese led to atrocious retaliations, and we see at tliis 
time the beginning of that fierce antagonism between 
class and class which existed for so long in prance, 
and which culminated at the revolution of 1789." 

There was only one authority in Europe that 
struggled steadily to check the supremacy of the 
feudal Nobility : that was the Royal Power. For 
several centuries in all the States of Europe a con- 
flict was maintained between the Crown and the 
Barons. In France the Kings, in Germany the Em- 
perors, in Italy the Popjs, constantly sought by 
force or diplomacy to curtail the dictatorship of the 
Aristocracy ; and in each of these countries the 
Aristocracy as fiercely defended their rights. 

The nature of the contest which took place in Eng- 
land between the Crown and the Barons I will reserve 
for a future chapter, relating; here what occurred in 
France. It was in the latter country that the feudal 
despots held larger possessions, exercised greater 
authority, and kept their vassals under better dis- 
cipline than elsewhere. 

When a weak man was on the throne of France, he 
shrank from any collision with the Barons, lest he 
might be deprived of his crown ; for many of the more 
powerful carried their ambition so far as to aspire 
to the Regal Authority. There were many French 
Kings, however, of ability and courage, who made bold 
efforts to reduce the exorbitant power of these Lords 
of the soil. 

One of the first who assailed them with success 
was Louis VI., whose reign, 1108-37, was memor- 
able for the Rise of a Middle Class. At this time 
there was no such thing as a standing army, and 
the King had fewer retainers at his command 



FRANCE. 77 

than many of his powerful Nobles. Under these cir- 
cumstances, Louis looked round for aid to carry out 
his purpose of strengthening the Uoyal Power, so 
utterly defied by the contumacious Barons. His eye 
fell on various small clusters of men, called Com- 
munes^ scattered here and there over the country, 
composed chiefly of the serfs who had fled from the 
violence and exactions of their despotic landlords. 
Collecting in groups of a few hundred, more or less, 
these fugitive slaves had built walls round their habi- 
tations, and thus defied the power of their Suzerain. 

Among the first of these Communes was Le Mans, 
which was established in lOOG. Others followed; 
and at the beginning of the twelfth century several 
had grown to considerable size, and all of them 
had a Militia force trained by frequent contests with 
the vassals of some predatory Baron. 

Louis YL proposed to incorporate these Communes* 
— to give them a Mayor and Municipal privileges, but on 
the condition that they put their Militia at his service. 
This condition the Communes gladly accepted, as the 
object of the King was to fight the common enemy. 
Thus fortified, the King began his attacks on the 
Barons. 

It cost him a siege of three years before he took 
the castle of the Lord of Puiset. He afterwards as- 
sailed the Counts of Mantes^ Montfort, Montmorency, 
&c., and demolished the castle of the Lord of Montl- 
hery, who claimed jurisdiction over 133 fiefs or estates, 
and 300 parishes. Finally, he attempted to seize on 
Normandy, which then belonged to Henry L of Eng- 

* Louis VI. also gave charters to several old towns to make them 
independent of feudal and ecclesiastical pretensicms, such as Soi ^s«)n3 
and Laon. Soissous was a flourishing city of Gaul at the time of tha 
Roman invasion. 



yS AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

land, son of William the Conqueror, but was defeated, 
1119. 

His son, Louis VII., continued the war against 
the Aristocracy ; and, among others, he attacked the 
Count of Champagne. Whilst engaged in the contest 
with this Nobleman, the King burnt the town of Vitry; 
and 1300 people perished who had taken refuge in 
the church. To expiate this crime, Louis put himself 
at the head of the Second Crusade, 1147, and per- 
formed prodigies of valor.* 

Philip Augustus, his son, continued the struggle 
against Feudality, and vanquished the Count of Flan- 
ders and the Duke of Burgundy. He added to the 
domains of the Crown, the Duchy of Normandy, the 
Countships of Artois, Evreux, Meulan, and eight 
others. This remarkable man greatly increased the 
Royal Power in other ways also : he incorporated 
numerous Communes^ and also created a Militia called 
iheRibauds, 1189.t 

His grandson, Louis IX., subdued several of the 
Lords who had revolted, and amongst the rest the 
Count de la Marche, 1242.t 

* After his return from the East, Louis VIT. repudiated his wife 
Eleonoi-e, 1152, wLom he suspected of adultery. She then married 
Henrj' II. of England, grandson of William the Conqueror, and brought 
to him as dowry her great possessions in France — Gueune, Poitou, 
Auvtrgne, Perigord, Limou.sin, &c. Louis VII., enraged at this 
marriage, sustained the sons of Henry II., who had revolted against 
their father, and welcomed to his court Thomas h, Becket, Archbishop 
of Canterbury, after he had quarrellt-d with the English king. 

+ This king greatly embellished Paris. He was the first to pave 
some of the streets ; commenced the markets, and the hospital known 
as I' Hotel Dieu ; contnmed the building Notre Dame; protected the 
University of Paris; made excellent laws ; and encouraged commerce. 

X During the reign of Louis IX., in 1250, a band of marauders, called 
Pastoureaux, under the leadership of a Hungarian monk, wandered 
about the country committing great ravages. They declared them- 
selves the enemies of the nobles and the clergy, attacking the castles 
and devastating the churches. They were overtaken and cut to pieces 



FRANCE. 79 

The grandson of Louis, Philip lY.,* who died 1314, 
devoted himself to not only breaking down the Feudal 
Power, but also to diminishing the ascendency of 
the Church. He accomplished, besides, a great deal 
for the cause of Centralization — that is, increasing 
the Royal Power at the expense of feudal rights and 
privileges. He made considerable additions to the 
Royal domains, the most notable being the city of 
L3'ons and the diocese of Viviers. With a view to 
replenish the Royal Treasur}^ he sold charters to the 
Comrmuies, Philip IV. was also the first, some writers 
assert, to establish a permanent or standing arm}^ 

One of the earlier causes which contributed to 
weaken the feudal Nobles was the eagerness with 
which they threw themselves into those famous ex- 
peditions to Asia Minor against the Infidels. The 
motives of these Crusades will be considered in another 
place. Here it is sufficient to say, that in order to 
raise money to fit out their vassals for these expensive 
enterprises, many of them were obliged to mortgage 
their domains to the Crown, and were afterwards 
unable to redeem them. 

Another cause, howevrr, which was much more 
efficacious in reducing the power of the Nobles, and 
adding to that of the Kings, was the Invention of 
gunpowder. 

The testimony is conflicting as to the date of this 

in 1251. Tliese were the forerunners of that revolution which five 
hundred j'ears later swept over France. 

* Louis VI., in 1130, was the first who called the representatives of 
the Communes, which he sought to develop, to sit in council with the 
clergy and the nobles; but these representatives were allowed no other 
rdle tlian tliat of spectators of the deliberations of tlie two great orders. 
Philip IV, was the first who called the three orders — the clergy, the 
nobles, and the delegates of the third class (that is, the middle class) — 
to assemble and deliberate ou national affiiirs, in 1302. This assembly 
was called Les Elats Generaux — the States General. 



80 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

event. By some it is attributed to Roger Bacon, an 
Englisli Monk, and to the year 1250 ; by others to B. 
Schwartz, a German Monk, who lived nearly half a 
century later.* It is certain that gunpowder came 

* Some authors pretend that gunpowder was used in battle against 
Alexander the Great, by some Hindoo tribes, '655 B.C. It is assei-ted 
by others that gunpowder artillery was employed by the Chinese in 
85 A.D. Its exportation from England was prohibited by Henry V. in 
1414. 

The following dates showing its use in artillery may be found in- 
teresting : — 

A.D. 

1118 The Moors used artillery in an attack upon Saragopal. 

1156 Abdelmuraem, the Moorish king, takes Mahadia from the 

Sicilians by means of artillery. 
1308 Guzman el Bueuo takes Gibraltar from the Moors by means ol 

artillery, 
1327 Edward III. uses " crakeys of war" in his expedition against 

Scotland. 
1331 Ibu Nason Ben Bia mentions that balls of iron thrown by means 

of fire were military weapons of the Moors. 
1338 The Fi-ench use artillery at the siege of Pny-Guillaume. 
1347 Edward III. uses espringals and bombards at tlie siege of Calais. 
1364 Small hand-canncm are constructed in large numbers at Perouse. 
1366 The Venetians first used artillery at the siege of Chioggia. 
1378 John of Gaunt uses 400 cannon night and day in a fruitless attack 

upon St Malo. 

1381 Eleven pieces of ordnance are mentioned as existing in the Hotel 

de Ville, Bologna. 

1382 Portable bombards, subsequently called culverines, are introduced 

in France. Field-guns are employed by the people of Ghent 

against Bruges. 
1386 The English capture two French vessels armed with heavy 

artillery. 
1394 The Turks use artillery at the siege of Constantinople. 
1418 The Englisn, under the Duke of Gloucester, fire red-hot balls at 

the siege of Cherbourg. 
1460 James II. is killed by the accidental bursting of a cannon at the 

siege of Roxburgh Castle. 
1477 Louis XI. causes twelve portable cannon to be cast to throw 

metal shot, and to be used as a siege train. 
1488 Gun-carriages greatly improved are constructed in France. 
1431 Charles Vi II. of France attacks Rennes with an artillery force 

drawn by 3000 horses. 
1498 The Portuguese find artillery much in use in India. 
1521 Bi-ass cannon are first cast in England. Pigafetta, the secretary 

of Magellan, states the walls of the town of Borneo are de- 
fended by six iron and fifty -six brass cannon. 
1543 Large mortars to fire shells are made in England by Peter 

Bawd. 



FRANCE, 8 1 

into use in Europe in the beginning of the fourteenth 
century, for we find that Gibraltar was taken from 
the Moors in 1308 by the employment of artillery. 

The application of gunpowder to war led to extra- 
ordinary results, both political and social. ^' Up to 
this time," says Buckle, '' it was considered the duty 
of nearly every man to be prepared to enter the mili- 
tary service, for the purpose of. either defending his 
own country or attacking others. Standing armies 
were entirely unknown, and in tlieir place there 
existed a rude and barbarous militia, always ready 
for battle, and always unwilling to engage in those 
peaceful pursuits which were then universally despised. 
Nearly every man being a soldier, the military pro- 
fession, as such, had no separate existence; or, to 
speak more properly, the whole of Europe composed 
one great army, in which all other professions were 
merged. 

" To this the only exception was the ecclesiastical 
profession, but even that was affected by the general 
tendency, and it was not at all uncommon to see large 
bodies of troops led to the field by bishops and abbots, 

1545 The Mary Rose, man-of-war, sinks oflF the coast of France with 
600 men on boaid owing to the weight of her artillery. Breech- 
loadiug cannon have been recovered from the wreck. 

1547 Iron cannon are first cast in England about this year. 

1554 At the battle of Remi, Charles V. employs liglit guns with lim- 
bers drawn by two horses, and called the Emperor's pistol. 

1686 The colossal brass gun " Malick e Meidan," or "lord of the plain," 
cast at Bejapore in commemoration of the capture of the city 
this year by the Emperor. Arungzebe is the largest cast can- 
non in existence, measuring 14 feet 1 inch in length, with a 
bore of 2 feet 4 inches, and requiring an iron shot weighing 
IttOO lbs. 

1847 Major Cavalli's rifled breech-loading cannon is introduced. 

1854 Mr (afterwards Sir) William Armstrong's gun is introduced, 

1855 The Horsfall gun is constructed 

1860 Mr Whitwortli's rifled artillery is tested. 
1864 The Mackay gun is tested at Liverpool. 

4* F 



82 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

to most of whom the arts of war were, in those days, 
perfectly familiar. At all events, between these two 
pursuits men were all divided ; the only avocations 
were war and theology ; and if you refused to enter 
the Church, you were bound to do military duty. 

^' As a natural consequence, everything of real im- 
portance was altogether neglected. There were, in- 
deed, many priests and many warriors, many sermons 
and many battles ; but on the other hand, there was 
neither trade, nor commerce, nor manufactures; there 
was no science, no literature ; the useful arts were 
entirely unknown, and even the highest ranks of 
society were unacquainted, not only with the most 
ordinary comforts, but with the commonest decencies 
of civilized life. 

** But so soon as gunpowder came into use, there was 
laid the foundation of a great change. According to 
the old system, a man had only to possess what he 
generally inherited from his father, either a sword or 
a bow, and he was ready equipped for the field. Ac- 
cording to the new system, very different weapons 
were required, and the equipment became more costly 
and more difficult. 

^^ First, there was the supply of gunpowder, then 
there was the possession of muskets, which were ex- 
pensive articles, and considered difficult to manage. 
Then, too, there were other contrivances to which 
gunpowder naturally gave rise, such as pistols, bombs, 
mortars, shells, mines, and the like. All these things, 
by increasing the complication of the military art, 
increased the necessity of discipline and practice, 
whilst, at the same time, the change that was effected 
in the ordinary weapons deprived a great majority of 
men of the possibility of procuring them. 



FRANCE. 83 

^^ To snit the altered circumstances, a new system 
was org-anized, and it was found advisable to train up 
bodies of men for the sole purpose of war, and to 
separate them, as much as possible, from those other 
employments in which, previously, all soldiers occa- 
sionally engaged. Thus it was that there arose 
standing' armies." 

The above quotation is more applicable to the 
*^ Dark Ages " than even to the early part of the 
<^ Middle Ages." From the fifth to the tenth cen- 
turies, it is true enough that the only avocations 
were War and Theology; that all men were divided 
between these two professions ; and that, if any one 
refused to enter the Church, he was enrolled in the 
rude and barbarous Militia. But the condition of 
men had improved by the end of the tenth and 
beginning of the eleventh centuries ; for feudal life, 
with its baronial castles and gorgeous trappings, had 
rapidly developed ; and it is hardly correct to say of 
this period that '^ the highest ranks were unacquainted, 
not only with the most ordinary comfort, but with 
the commonest decencies of civilized life." 

There is a more important point, however, than this. 
What was the date of standing armies in Europe ? On 
this point the statements of Buckle are contradictory. 
He begins by telling us that standing armies were 
formed almost immediately after gunpowder was in- 
vented. If this be so, it is easy to find the date when 
standing armies arose ; for '^ cannons," says he, 
" were certainly used in war before the middle of the 
fourteenth century." If standing armies followed 
immediately the invention of gunjjowder, then they 
must have come into existence by the middle of the 
fourteenth century, or soon after, for cannons were 



84 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

then in use. Yet we are informed by Buckle that 
the " first standing armies were formed in the middle 
of the fifteenth century " — a whole century, that is, 
after the invention of gunpowder. In fixing the rise 
of standing armies at this date, Buckle probably 
followed the authority of Hallam, who states that 
'^ Charles VII. of France raised the first standing army 
in Europe, and levied a poll-tax in 1444 to defray 
the expenditure." French authorities assert that 
Philip IV., who died in the beginning of the four- 
teenth century, was the first to raise a standing army ; 
and that Charles VII., who lived over a century later, 
provided for its regular payment by creating a tax. 

The object of this digression on gunpowder is to 
show the reader what an immense advantage was 
gained by the Kings of France in their struggle with 
the feudal Lords, when they had a standing army 
at their command. 

Various causes — the victorious assaults of successive 
Kings, continual conflicts with each other, their ex- 
penditure in- the Crusades — gradually weakened that 
powerful body of Nobles, who once exercised Sovereign 
Power in their respective domains, and brought them 
more and more under the control of the Royal Power. 
In 1465, a formidable League, with Charles the Bold of 
Burgundy and the Duke of Brittany at its head, was 
organized against Louis XL ; but this adroit and able 
Monarch managed to dissolve and overcome it. By 
stratagem and force Louis inflicted manv damao-ino- 
blows on the feudal Nobility, wresting from them, 
and adding to the Crown, numerous fiefs, such as 
Picardy, Burgundy, Franche-Comte, &c. Few did 
more than Louis XI. for the territorial unity of France. 

The partiality he displayed to the Middle Class 



FRANCE. 85 

— who at this time began to be called the Bour- 
geoisie, from living in Boiirgs, or walled towns — 
was as remarkable as the hostility he displayed to the 
Nobility. He granted to various towns, as Bordeaux, 
Dijon, &c., parlements, that is, Com^ts of Justice of 
the highest jurisdiction.* 

In 1484, during the Regency of Anne, the daughter 
of Louis XL, the States General were called together, 
when the Nobility revolted and took the field. They 
were beaten by the Royal troops in 1488. 

From that period, for over a hundred years, down to 
Louis XIII. in 1610, there were frequent conflicts 
between the Royal Power and the feudal Nobility* 
which tended steadily to diminish the ascendency the 
latter once possessed. Their doom was sealed when 
Cardinal Richelieu was invested with supreme power 
in 1623. 

This extraordinary man had early resolved on 
three great projects : to suppress the Protestant 
faction; to end the predominance of Austria; and, 
above all, to break down the feudal Nobility, destroy 
their factious spirit, and reduce them to subordina- 
tion. He accomplished the first in taking La Rochelle, 
the headquarters of the Protestants, after a siege of 
thirteen months. He succeeded in the second by 
repeated victories over Austria, which ended in the 
Treaty of Westphalia, 1648. His greatest, and most 
difficult feat, however, was the overthrow of the great 
Nobles, who still wielded immense influence, though 
no longer at the head of armies of vassals as in the 
old days of Feudality two hundred years before. 

Perceiving the purpose of Richelieu, the Nobles 

* Louis XI. introduced printing into France from Mayence, where 
Gutteuburg invented it in 1442. 



86 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPE CT. 

resorted first to intrigue to deprive him of power. 
Uniting with the brother of the King, Gaston Dake of 
Orleans, they succeeded in inducing Louis to sign a 
decree ejecting Richeli 'U from office. The Cardinal, 
however, hearing of the conspiracy, flew to Versailles 
the same day, and regained his position with the King. 
To escape a similar danger, he resorted to the most 
rigorous measures. He seized all the conspirators 
within his reach: exiled some,* imprisoned others, and 
condemned Marshal Marillac to death. 

The more powerful adopted the old tactics, and 
defied the stern Cardinal in the field. The Duke 
of Montmorency, Hereditary Governor of Languedoc, 
raised an insurrection ; and having met the troops 
dispatched by Richelieu at Castelnaudary, 1632, was 
defeated, made prisoner, and executed. Ratlier than 
yield to their implacable enemy, some of the most 
resolute of the Nobility, in utrumque parati, had 
recourse to foreign aid, and applied to Austria and 
Spain. The Dukes of Bouillon and Guise, with the 
Count of Soissons, encountered the army of Richelieu 
at Mariee, 1641, and were defeated. The Count 
perished in the combat, but the others escaped, f The 
Marquis of Cinq Mars, who had, conjointly with the 
Duke of Orleans, negotiated with Spain to obtain 
troops and money, was arrested at Narbonne, tried 
and executed at Lyons with his accomplice De Thou, 
1642. By this relentless policy Richelieu gave a 
deathblow to Feudality in France. 

* Marie de Medicis, mother of the King, and the Duchess de 
Chevreuse, the confiilant of the Queen, Anne of Austria, were among 
the exiled. Even the Queen herself was assigned for some time to a 
convent at Paris. 

+ The Duke de Bouillon was aftei-wards compelled, for this act of 
treason, to give up his principality of Sedan, which was annexed to the 



FRANCE. Sy 

Not long after this, another effort was made by the 
discomfited Nobles to regain their supremacy. After 
the death of Louis XIII. in 1643 — Richelieu having 
died in 1642 — Anne of Austria became Hegent during 
the minority of Louis XIV., and she appointed 
Cardinal Mazarin her Minister.* Thinking the 
opportunity favourable, the Nobles rose in insurrec- 
tion; and in 1648 the struggle known as the War of 
the Fronde began. 

For five years the result was uncertain. The Regent 
was compelled at one time to abandon Paris and make 
her headquarters at St Germain, where she ordered 
a siege to be opened against Paris. To conciliate this 
powerful League, Mazarin retired to Cologne, but dis- 
cord breaking out among the Chiefs of the Fronde^ he 
was recalled. A bloody combat took place at the gates 
of Paris between the Royal troops commanded by 
Turenne, and the forces of the Fronde led by the Prince 
of Conde. Desperate exertions were made by the 
Aristocracy to involve all France in this supreme effort 
to recover their waning power. The beautiful Duchess 
of Longuevillet and her husband, the Dukes of 

* Mazarin was an Italian, and the Pope's Legate at Paris. He 
entered the service of Richelieu, who recommended him as Minister 
after his death. He had not the genius or firmness of the French 
Cardinal, but, by subtlety and diplomatic skill, he achieved his ends 
none the less surely. He left a large fortune to his five nieces, who 
were all beautiful, and made grand alliances. The young king was 
greatly enamoured of one of them, but she was sent away from Paris 
by the cautious Mazarin, Two of these ladies afterwards separated 
from their husbands, and became noted for their romantic adventures. 
One of them had a liaison with Charles II. of England, and died in 
London. 

t This lady,, equally celebrated for her beauty and intelligence, was 
an ardent champion of the Fronde. She induced Marshal Turenne, and 
afterwards the Duke de La Rochefoucauld, to join it. The latter was 
greatly enamoured of the lovely Duchess, and commemorated it in the 
well-known lines— 

*' Pour meriter son cceur, pour plaire a ses beaux yeux, 
J'ai fait la guerre aux rois, je I'aurais faite aux dieux." 



88 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

Beaufort and La Rocliefoucauld, and man}^ other aris- 
tocratic leaders, made a tour of the jDrovinces, calling 
on them to rise against the Throne. As in the days 
of Itichelieu, the rebellious Nobles sought foreign as 
well as domestic aid — the Prince of Conde having 
made a secret alliance with Spain. 

After numerous vicissitudes, Mazarin was again 
forced to resign his post ; but on the arrest of several 
of the chief leaders of the Fronde^ he was able to 
return to power and put an end to the Rebellion in 
] 653. With the fiill of the Fronde^ the Feudal System, 
which once exercised sovereign sway over the dis- 
membered territory of France, sank into the tomb; 
and upon it was built the solid foundations of the 
Monarchy, now left without a rival to dispute its 
monopoly of power. 



TEIUMPH OF THE MONAECHY. 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Louis XIV. spoke truly when he declared, Vetat^ c^est 
moi — '* the state, that's me" — for his will was law. 
Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem. The Clergy 
who had dominated France during the Dark Ages, 
and the feudal Nobles who had held sway over it 
during the Middle Ages, were now both bereft of 
political influence ; and the Monarchy, which had 
resisted the one and struggled against the other, 
emerged at last triumphant. The King was now 
more absolute than ever the Clergy or the Nobles had 
been, and the abuse of power was just as great. Though 
the Monarchy was thus omnipotent, the Nobles, how- 
ever, still retained their estates and many important 
privileges ; amongst others, exemption from taxa- 
tion. The Feudal System, so far tis the authority of 
the Crown was concerned, was broken down in 1653; 
but, for all the rest, it remained in force till the Revolu- 
tion of 1789 blotted it out entirely. ^' The relations 
the nobles bore to the throne," says Buckle, '' became 
entirely changed; that which they bore to the people 
remained almost the same. In England, slavery or 
villenage quickly diminished, and was extinct by the 
end of the sixteenth century, but in France it lingered 
two hundred years later." 

It is certainly an astonishing fact that up to the 



90 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Frencli Kevolution of 1789 the Lower Class was 
divided into two categories — those who were free, 
and those who still remained in a servile condition. 
Cassagnac, in his work on the Revolution, states 
that *'in 1789 there still existed in France one 
million and five hundred thousand serfs." It was 
only a short time before the Revolution that Louis 
XVL abolished serfdom in the royal domains. These 
facts are conclusive proof that the Feudal System was 
only finally eradicated by the tremendous tornado 
which covered France with ruins in 1789. 

The reader has now been presented with the con- 
spicuous features of Feudality during the Middle Ages 
as the}^ were revealed in France. It prevailed in all 
the countries of the Continent; but its aspect was 
everywhere the same, except in England, where its de- 
velopment received a check from causes that will be de- 
scribed. Gradually yielding to the pressure of events, 
Feudality has everywhere disappeared in Europe, save, 
as I have said, in Germany, where successive Emperors 
were not so successful in their struggles with the 
Barons as were the Kings of France. The consequence 
is, that up to our day Germany is still split up into a 
number of small baronial estates, where the heirs of 
feudal ancestors still retain the title and dignity of 
Sovereign over their hereditary domains ; though the 
exercise of the old feudal rights has long been con- 
trolled by the growth of popular power. 

In discussing the merits of the Feudal System, we 
may assert that, while it had little to recommend it, 
it would be illogical to condemn it as worthless ; since 
it was the natural product of the state of things then 
existing, and must have had a raison d'etre^ some pur- 
pose to fulfil, some end to accomplish. It certainly 



FRANCE. 91 

tended to diminish the utter disorganization into 
which society was thrown by the irruption of the 
barbarians. 

*' The Feudal System," saj^^s Buckle, ^' was a vast 
scheme of policy, which, clumsy and imperfect as it 
was, supplied many of the wants of the rude 
people among whom it arose. The connection 
between it and the decline of the ecclesiastical spirit 
is very obvious ; for the Feudal System was the first 
great secular plan that had been seen in Europe since 
the formation of the Roman civil law ; it was the first 
comprehensive attempt which had been made during 
more than four hundred years to organise society 
according to temporal, and not according to spiritual 
circumstances.'' From the fifth to the tenth century, 
Europe was under the domination of the Ecclesi- 
astics of the New Religion. During these Dark 
Ages their spiritual sway over the masses was 
unmolested, and even Charlemagne thought it ex- 
pedient to conciliate the Clergy. Towards the end of 
the tenth century, however, the Lords of the soil 
thought themselves strong enough to defy clerical 
control ; and they set up a Government which made 
them Sovereign each in their own domain, and equally 
independent of King or Pope. Up to this period the 
Priests of the young Christian Church enjoyed an un- 
disputed supremacy ; but when the Barons stepped 
into the field with a Government, not only temporal, 
but based on force, they encountered a rival they were 
not at first disposed to acknowledge. Hitherto the 
Clergy had been a privileged class. They were ex- 
empted from all the burdens of the State, and not 
called to do military service. They lost these 
immunities when Feudalism spread over Europe, and 



92 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

they ceased to be the sole controlling class. Instead 
of men looking up to the Church as hitherto, they 
began now to look up to the Nobles. It was natural 
enough the Clergy should chafe under this change of 
position. They discerned plainly that Feudalism was 
a Secular Government, and that, if it endured. Theo- 
cracy was at an end. They foresaw they should be 
forced to divide the power they had for several 
centuries monopolized. A struggle ensued between 
Feudality and the Church, which ended ere long in 
their reconciliation. The Church found itself weaker 
and the Barons stronger than was supposed. In 
fact the power of the Church was declining, because 
the masses were becoming less ignorant and super- 
stitious. 

The Feudal System, and the Birth of the Middle 
Class, were the two j^i'ominent features in France of 
the epoch known as the Middle Ages. The first I 
have treated perhaps too copiously ; but I have little 
to relate of the latter, for the reason that their rise as 
an influential body met with a check which effectually 
stopped their political development. 

It has been already mentioned that Louis YL, 1108, 
seeing that the inhabitants of the numerous Commimes 
which were springing up all over France might be of 
service to the Monarchy in its duel with Feudality, 
purchased their support by the concession of Municipal 
rights. This policy, as I showed, was followed up by 
many of his Successors. When, however, the French 
Kings found that, with the aid of standing armies, 
they were strong enough to fight the feudal Nobles, 
and that they could dispense with the Militia hitherto 
supplied by the Communes^ they lost no time in 
abrogating, one after another, all the privileges they 



FRANCE, 93 

hnd granted. Already from the fourteenth century 
they began curtailing the privileges of the Communes ; 
and in the reign of Charles IX., 1560-74, all juris- 
diction over their own aifairs was taken from the 
Municipalities, and they fell under the government of 
the Crown. By the end of the reign of Henry IV., 
1610, '* it seemed to be quite forgotten," says a 
French authority, ^^ that the towns of France had 
ever possessed any franchises at all." 

The Middle Class in Fiance steadily advanced in 
numbers and opulence, although thus cunningly stript 
of all political rights when too weak to resist ; but 
they grew up under the domination both of the Crown 
and their old masters the Nobles, deprived of all 
Municipal freedom, ignorant of all Political usages ; 
and, therefore, they were deficient in that love of 
liberty and independence which is inherited from free 
institutions.* The Middle Class of England, as we 
shall see, had a very different history ; and it is 
owing to this that their political knowledge and in- 
fluence guarantee to-day the tranquillity of that 
nation. Indeed, it may be said that the best interests 
of modern Europe, her repose, and material prosperitj-, 
are bound up with the moral and political authority 
the Middle Class is destined to wield. It is the 
Middle Class, placed between the upper and lower 
ranks, and closely connected with both, which is 
naturally called to exercise the role of arbitrator ; 
obtaining for one all just concessions, and protecting 
the other from undue exactions. 

The French Monarchy, as already stated, after the 

* Down to 1870 the French towns were still under the tutelage of 
the Government, and the Republican party is as averse as the Monar- 
chical to granting them independence. 



94 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

struggles for centuries with the Papacy and the feudal 
Nobles, at last overcame both ; and when Louis XIV. 
began in 1661 to govern, he was absolute master of 
the country. His despotism was above all control : 
no King of England, Saxon or Norman, ever wielded 
such arbitrary power. The reign of this Monarch, 
extending over fifty years, was brilliant : he was able, 
firm, laborious ; skilful in administration ; and a 
friend of letters and arts. He surrounded himself 
with sagacious Ministers, as Colbert, Louvois; and 
with great Generals, as Conde, Turenne, Yauban. 
A galaxy of illustrious writers adorned his epoch, as 
Eacine, Corneille, Moliere, Boileau, La Fontaine, 
Bossuet, Massillon, Fenelon ; and the Arts flourished 
under such great masters as Lebrun and Lesueur. 
The military successes of Louis were numerous, and 
added greatly to the French territory. Amongst his 
other conquests was the province of Alsace, lately lost 
in the war of 1870. He vastly adorned Paris and its 
neighbourhood ; built the Hopital des InvalideSj the 
Colonnade of the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles, 
the Trianons ; and founded the manufacture of Gobe- 
lins tapestry. In his latter years he fell under 
Clerical influence, and was induced to revoke the 
Edict of Nantes, which recognized the Protestant 
worship. Louis XIV. was the most distinguished 
Potentate of his time, and was surnamed, Le Grand 
Monarque. 

After his death the Monarchy fell into incompetent 
hands, and rapidly declined. Moreover, the events 
that had occurred in England began to reverberate in 
France, and to stimulate her litterateurs to assail a 
Despotism that regarded France as little better than a 
royal domain. 



DECLINE OF THE MOISTARCHY. 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

The heir to the throne, Louis XY,, was but five 
j^ears old at the death of his great-grandfather, and 
Philip, Duke of Orleans, was declared Regent, 1715, 
during his minority. The Regent was a man of 
brilliant talents, and obtained early distinction 
in arms. He afterwards occupied himself with 
Natural Science. While at the head of the Govern- 
ment he effected great reforms; reduced the army; 
and extinguished four hundred millions of debt. He 
allowed himself, however, to be dazzled by the 
seductive financial schemes of John Law, a Scotch- 
man, who proposed to the Regent a plan to liquidate 
the National Debt. 

Law was authorized, 1716, to establish a Bank of 
Discount, the first of the kind in France. This 
private bank was created in 1718 a public bank. The 
shares were eagerly sought after, and rose to 40 per 
cent, premium ; and this may be regarded as the 
origin in France and Europe of stock-gambling. A 
Company was organized by Law soon afterwards, and 
allied to the Bank, which had the privilege to trade 
with the French possessions on the Mississippi, China, 
and the East Indies. An immense quantity of paper 
notes were issued by the Bank, far beyond its real 
assets ; but in three years the bubble exploded, and 



g6 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

great numbers were ruined. Law was obliged to 
leave France, and died in poverty in Venice, 1729. 

The reign of Louis XV. began in 1723, and was 
tlie most discreditable France Lad ever known. He 
first engaged in a war against Austria; and after- 
wards, in 1756, supported bj^ Austria and Russia, he 
began the ^' Seven Years' War" against Frederick the 
Great of Prussia and his ally, England. In this 
war France was deprived by England of Canada, and 
all her possessions in the East Indies. 

The odious feature of this reign was the baneful 
influence exercised by two women, Madame de Pompa- 
dour, and, afterwards, Madame du Barry, mistresses at 
different periods of the King, who gave himself up so 
entirely to their sway, that they controlled the affairs of 
the State, making and overthrowing successive Cabi- 
nets. The scandalous debauchery of Louis brought the 
Monarchy into contempt ; and a movement similar to 
what happened in England in the time of James I. 
began in France, headed by many remarkable men, to 
strip the Crown of its excessive prerogatives.. Eliza- 
beth and Louis XV. were the two last Sovereigns 
who, in England and France, wielded Absolute power. 

The striking events which had occurred in England, 
ending in the substitution of Parliamentary Grovern- 
ment for that of the King, had attracted the atten- 
tion of thinking men in France ; and during the 
reign of Louis XV. many eminent writers went over 
to London, studied the language, and set to work 
investigating the contest which had culminated in 
the downfall of Royal Authority, and the erection on 
solid foundations of Personal Liberty and Parlia- 
mentary Sovereignt3\ No Parliament existed in 
France in which to conduct a similar conflict. An 



FRANCE, g*/ 

appeal to the nation was therefore made through 
literary channels. A wonderful profusion of illus- 
trious writers appeared at this epoch, nearly all of 
whom, as remarked, visited England, and made them- 
selves masters of her literature, philosophy, and poli- 
tics. Enlightened by these inquiries, they returned, 
and began a furious crusade against the doomed insti- 
tutions in Church and State of their native land. 

It would be tedious to cite the list of all these 
literary combatants, but some of them deserve 
special mention. 

Baron Montesquieu, in 1748, published his ''Esprit 
des Lois'''' — ''The Spirit of Laws" — after twenty 
years of study; and this remarkable book attracted 
the attention of Europe. He passed in review all 
the legislation of the world, ancient and modern, and 
endeavoured to show how far it was adapted to human 
nature generally, and how far it could be ascribed to 
local causes. He was the first to point out that the 
civil and political laws of any nation can be distinctly 
traced to the peculiarities of its climate, soil, and 
food.^ This palpable truth is now generally accepted ; 
and Buckle makes it the basis of his sketch of 
Asiatic and European civilization. The style as well 
as the matter of Montesquieu's book have secured it 
enduring popularity. 

Diderot and D'Alembert united in publishing an 
EncjTlopasdia in twenty-eight volumes, 1751-72, 
which is regarded by all as one of the striking books 
of the eighteenth century. It contained contribu- 
tions on Science and Art by all the great writers of 
the day. 

The highest intellect of France began, unhappily, 
at this period to surrender itself to Atheism. 

5 G 



98 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Condillac, a disciple of Loclce, in 1754, publislie.l 
his '' Traite des Sensations " — '• Treatise on Sensa- 
tions " — seeking to prove that all our ideas spring 
^from sensation, or are the effect of the action of the 
external world npon us. 

Helvetins, in 1758, wrote a hook on '-'' V EspriV — 
'' The Mind" — to prove that man only diftered from the 
hrnte hy his external organization. He denied that. 
he had any spiritnal nature. All his faculties he 
asserted were created hy physical impressions. He 
concluded that man in all his opinions and conduct was 
only guided by self-instinct. '' Everything we have," 
says Helvetins, '' everything Ave are, we owe to the 
external world ; nor is man himself aught else except 
what he is made hy the objects which surround him." 
These views were meant to overthrow every code of 
Morals hitherto known, and were hailed with applause. 

The two writers, however, who made the most 
impression on their epoch were Rousseau and Voltaire. 

J. J. Rousseau was a Swiss, born at Geneva in 
1712; but his reputation was made in France, 
where he wrote nearly all his books. His cele- 
bi'ated romance ''''La Nouvelle Heloise''' — ^* The 
New Heloise," 1759, fascinated the literary and 
fashionable world by its charms of style and 
passionate sensibility ; but the book that followed 
this, *'' Le Contrat SociaV — "The Social Contract," 
1761, made a far more lasting impression. It 
was in this work that Jie expounded those principles 
of Absolute Equality that later became the keynote 
of the Revolution. He touched on th2 same topic in 
an essay, '■'' De V Originp. de rinigaliU parmi les 
Hommes'^ — "On the Origin of the Inequality 
amongst Men" — written previously, 1753. lli^ 



I' A' Axes. 99 

well-known book, *' Ales Confessions "— ^^ My Con- 
fessions " — was published after his death, which 
occurred in 1778. 

The most prolific and versatile writer of his epoch 
was Voltaire, born near Paris, 1694. Poet, dramatist, 
historian, and philosopher, his works constitute in 
themselves a library. Acquiring in England a 
thorough knowledge of the language, he made known 
in France, by translations, the astronomy of Newton, 
the philosophy of Locke, and the dramas of Shake- 
speare. Beyond doubt, he towered over all tlie 
literary giants of his time by the variety of his 
knowledge, the depth of his observation, the lucidity 
of his style, and, above all, by the gift of a sarcastic 
wit that accomplished more than solid argument could 
efi^ct. Voltaire appeared at the very moment when 
France began to cast off, as it were, her vestments of 
the Middle Ages, and don the costume of modern times. 

Of all the men who shared in the demolition going 
on, Voltaire cut the deepest. He seemed es})ecially 
endowed for the work. His vast learning challenged 
all past knowledge, and his scathing wit destroyed all 
reverence for the present. The Monarchy, the Aristo- 
cracy, the Clergy, even Christianity itself, were all 
assailed in turn, and seemed to wither at his touch. 
He did more than all the rest to open the Gulf into 
which the France of the Middle Ages was destined to 
falL He died in 1778, and must have foreseen the 
catastrophe that was hourly approaching. A striking 
proof of his comprehensive and penetrating mind may 
be seen in the fact that he was the first who ever 
suggested Universal Freedom of Trade. It was then 
regarded as a monstrous paradox. 

Many other able thinkers appeared at this epoch ; 



100 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

and the object of them all was to concentrate the 
French mind on the Material workl, and emancipate 
it from all sense of authority, religious and political. 

This tendency to material views and interests led 
to an ardent culture of Physical Science.* Chemistry, 
Geology, Botany, and Zoology made immense pro- 
gress, and brought forth Lavoisier, Cuvier, Bichat, and 
Jussieu. To this same tendency is due the birth of 
Political Economy, which is simply the Science of the 
Material welfare of Nations. 

Beyond cavil the founder of the new study was 
Quesnay, wdio from his youth was remarked fur 
his love of Agriculture, and his earnest desire to raise 
the condition of the peasantry. He wrote constantly 
on all topics connected Avith the Soil, declaring in 
1758 that it w^as the sole Source of Wealth, and foi 
that reason should bear the weight of all taxation. 
He also advocated Liberty of Labor and Free Trade. 
Gournay, who wa-ote on the same subjects, differed 
from his contemporary as to the Soil alone being 
productive of a Nation's Wealth, arguing that the 
Products of Industry were also a source of Income. 
Turgot, at the same period, devoted his great intel- 
lect to the material condition of France, and published, 
1766, his "Reflexions sur la Formation et la Distri- 
bution des Richesses'''' — " Reflections on the Forma- 
tion and Distribution of Wealth." 

It w^as from these remarkable and practical men 
that Adam Smith of Scotland received his first 

* Buckle remarks that in the eighteenth century each of the three 
leading nations of Europe had a separate part to play. England 
diifused a love of freedom ; France, a knowledge of physical science ; 
while Germany revived the study of metaphysics and created philoso- 
phic history. 



FRANCE. 10 1 

lessons in Political Economy — lessons which he em- 
bodied with singular ability in his work on the 
"Wealth of Nat^ious," 1776. Smith declared that 
the Wealth of a Nation is its Labor ; and, further, 
that its Trade and Commerce should be Free. 

It should be born in mind, however, that it was 
Descartes * who destroyed the intellectual structure of 
the Middle Ages, by proving that all authority was 
fictitious which was not based on human reason ; as it 
was Richelieu who overthrew the political system of 
the Middle Ages, by suppressing Feudality and under- 
mining Ecclesiastical power. These two men, by their 
writings and policy, put an end to the power of the 
Nobles and Priests, who controlled France for several 
centuries. The period which followed, when the Royal 
authority freed from the opposition of the Nobles and 
Clergy found itself Absolute, was only a resting-place 
as it were for the Nation. France during this interval 
was really maturing for the new phase of national 
existence on which she was about to enter. The 
thinkers of the time suspected this, and by reflection 
and travel were training for the role of Pioneers. 
Most of them, as related, hurried to England to study 
the nature of the Government best adapted for the 
coming epoch. There the authority of the King, 
and the authority of a Class, had disappeared. The 
New authority represented the Nation — its intellect, 
its interests, and its will. In England there was 
much for the political missionaries of France to con- 
template, but nothing for them to export, as the 
history of their country was so dissimilar. In 
France for centuries two classes, the Aristocracy and 
the Clergy, had governed, and these gave way to an 

*See chapter on the Papacy for summary of the labors of Descartes. 



102 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Absolute Monarchy. Moreover, tbe Middle Class that 
had grown up had neither political rights nor the 
knowledge to use them. If, then, the Monarchy were 
overthrown, where was the political power to go ? 
What class or institution existed in France fit to 
waeld it ? The Aristocracy, the Clergy, the Monarchy, 
knew of but one kind of power — the most absolute; 
the Middle Class had conceived of none else ; the 
masses were unfit for any other ; yet the knell of 
Absolute Government in France had sounded. What 
was to succeed was the affair of other generations. 

The French reformers of the eighteenth century 
had only one task, that of clearing the way for 
National emancipation. Arbitrary Monarchy was a 
relic of a bygone age : it was a solecism in the new 
one. Its sudden fall might lead to chaos, but with 
reckless ardour the axe was applied to its roots. 

The cardinal feature of the reign of Louis XV. was 
universal Scepticism. Not only were the claims of 
the Church over the conscience denied, not only was 
the right of the State to obedience rejected, but 
Christianity itself was canvassed and repudiated. 
For centuries blind belief had prevailed in France. 
When it came to be regarded as only ignorance and 
superstition, a violent reaction ensued ; and all au- 
thority, divine and human, was spurned. 

The amazing activity of the French intellect during 
the latter part of the eighteenth century arose from 
its having broken through the fetters which Spiritual 
and Political tyranny had imposed on it for centuries; 
and its investigations took an exclusivel}' Material 
direction, because it now doubted the truth of every 
theory in Science, Politics, and Religion that had been 
hitherto recognized. In a very short time the 



FRANCE. 103 

Scepticism of the thinkers seized on the Nation ; and 
the consequence was, the overtlirow of the wliole 
Fahric of Government, political, religious, and social, 
which liad maintained itself in France for so many 
centuries. 

Thus were the seeds of the tempest sown. 



THE REVOLUTION. 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 

In 1774, Louis XVL, grandson of Louis XY., 
iiscended the throne at twenty years of age. He 
was both amiable and virtuous, but without the 
capacity to direct, much less to control the deep 
fermentation then pervading France. He singularly 
resembled the unfortunate Charles L Like him, he 
was moral and kind-hearted, but weak and vacil- 
lating ; and like him, he allowed his Queen to 
exercise over him a fatal ascendency. Both appeared 
at an epoch when their faults, however venial, could 
have no other result than Death for themselves and 
Kevolution for their respective countries. 

The King called to his aid the leading men of the 
day — Turgot, Malesherbes, and Necker. Many abuses 
were abolished, and many useful institutions were 
established.* 

In 1778, Louis gave assistance in men and money 
to the English Colonies in North America as^ainst 
the Mother-country, and guaranteed their Independ- 
ence by the Treaty of Versailles, 1782. 

The dilapidated state of the Finances compelled the 
King to call two Assemblies of the Notables, consisting 

* The Mont de Piete — State pawnbrokers — and the Caisse cTEscompte 
■—a bank of discount, the origin of the Bank of France — were two 
of ihe most useful institutions founded at this time. 



FRANCE, 105 

of the heads of the Nobility, Clergy, aiid Magistracy, 
1787-88. They quarrelled, and decided nothing. He 
then convoked the States General, May, 1789, which 
had not met since 1614, and which, as already seen, 
was composed of the three Orders, the Nobility, Clergy, 
and Tiers-Etat—Ti\u^ Estate, or Middle Class.* 
When the States a.s,sembled, the Nobility and Clergy 
refused to deliberate in common with the Tiers- Etat, 
The Deputies of the Middle Class thereupon withdrew 
in June, and met separately in a hall at Versailles 
used as a tennis court, and assumed the name of the 
National Assembly. This incident caused agitation 
in Paris ; but it augmented greatly when, soon after- 
wards, the Tiers- Etat Y^'QVQ ordered to disperse. Tliey 
defied the Government, and swore never to adjourn 
till they had given a Constitution to France. The 
excitement in Paris became so alarming that troops 
were ordered to concentrate on Versailles, the residence 
of the King. 

On the 11th of July, the Prime Minister, Necker, 
the idol of the people, was dismissed. This spark 
caused an explosion which shook all Europe to its 
centre. On the 14th of July the people of Paris 
rose in insurrection, and captured the Bastille.'\ The 
National Assembly or Tiers- Etat, regardless of the 
co-operation of the Representatives of the Nobility and 
Clergy sitting at Versailles, began legislating with 
extraordinary boldness. In August, 1789, they voted 
the abolition of all Feudal privileges. Then folloTved a 
Decree proclaiming Peligious Liberty and Freedom of 

* Convoked for the first time in 13G9. 

+ The Bastille was a large fortress built in 1343. Like the Tower 
of London, it was meant either to defend or menace Paris. It was 
used latterly as a prison of State. The mistresses of Louis XV., by 
ItUres de cached sent any one there who gave them umbrage. 

5* 



I06 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

the Press. In Octobei-', the people of Paris went to 
Versailles en masse, and demanded the King's return 
to the Capital. The National Assembly then removed 
to Paris. In November, they voted that the property 
of the Church belonged to the Nation. In January, 
1790, the old territorial division of France into Pro- 
vinces was superseded by breaking up the Kingdom 
into eighty-three Departments. In March, the^sale of 
the church property was voted to the extent of 400 
millions of francs; in April, paper money, called 
assigiiats* — from the church lands being assigned as 
security — was created ; and in June, all Titles of 
Nobility were abolijshed. In 1791, the King's Right 
of Pardon was suppressed. 

It w\as in June of this same year that the King and 
his family were discovered endeavoring to escape 
from France, and brought back to Paris. In July, 
all Orders of Knighthood were abolished : and in 
September, a Constitution was voted and accepted by 
the King. 

The Constitution gave the Executive power to the 
King, and the Legislative power to a single Chamber 
called the Legislative Assembly — to be elected by the 
people, and to consist of seven hundred and forty-five 
Members. 

The leading man of the National or Tiers-Etat 
Assembly was Mirabeau. Though a Nobleman of 
ancient descent, he threw himself with ardor into 
the Revolutionary movement ; and, by his energy and 
unrivalled eloquence, gave it an impetus which soon 
outran his wishes. Whether from sympathy with 

* The emission of assignats or paper notes went on increasing till 
they reached, in 1796, the sum of 45 milUons of francs, which then 
became worthless. 



FRANCE, 107 

the Royal Family, or because he was bribed, he aban- 
doned his violent opposition to the Government, and 
thereby endangered his immense popularity. He died 
April, 1791. 

Another man as prominent, but far inferior in ora- 
tory, was the Abbe Sieyes.* It was he who proposed 
that the deputies of the Tiers-Etat should organize 
as the National Assembly. He acquired great import- 
ance by a brochure in 1789 entitled — '' What is the 
Tiers-Etat? Eierything. What has it hitherto been? 
Nothing, What does it demand? To become some- 
thing,'''' 

The Legislative Assembly met in October, 1791. 
In November, they declared all emigrants con- 
demned to death, with the confiscation of their 
property, who did not return to France within two 
months. In April, 1792, they declared war against 
Austria ; in May, they condemned to transportation 
all Ecclesiastics who did not acknowledge the Consti- 
tution ; and in July, they decreed ^' The Country in 
Danger^^'' and held Permanent Sessions — ordering all 
the Municipalities to do the same, and the National 
Guard to rise en masse. In August, they suspended 
the functions of the King, and voted that a new 
Assembly, to be called the National Convention, 
should be convoked. 

In this Legislative Assembly, were organized two 
parties, which soon began struggling for the supre- 
macy. The first was known as la Montague — the 

* This extraordiricary mari, after figuring in all the sanguinary phases 
of the revolution, a member of the National Assembly, auci afterwards 
of the Convention, in which he voted the King's execution, became at 
last the colleague of General Bonaparte as one of the three Consuls. 
Later, he was transformed into a Count of the Empire. Afttr the fall 
of Napoleon, he retired to Brussels ; but after the revolution of 1830, 
he returned to Paris, where he died in 1836. 



I08 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

MouutaiD — from its members occupying the upper 
benches of the Assembly. It was headed by violent 
and unscrupulous men, whose aim was to seize on 
the Government. The second was called la Gironde^ 
as its leaders, the Girondists, were Deputies from the 
Department of the Gironde. They were eloquent and 
patriotic men, who desired the political regeneration 
of France, but were opposed to sanguinary excesses. 

COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. 

After the capture of the Bastille in July, 1789, the 
old Municipal government of Paris with its Prevot 
and Assessors was overthrown, and a new organiza- 
tion called the Commune was substituted. Paris v/as 
divided into forty-eight Sections, with an Administra- 
tion at their head ; and over all was placed a Mayor 
with two Councils. The object of this scheme was to 
concentrate in the hands of the central power com- 
plete control over Paris and its populace. The first 
two Mayors were Bailly and Petion. 

During the administration of the latter, the Tuil- 
eries, where the Itoyal Family resided, was sacked by 
the mob, August, 1792 ; and in September, several 
thousand persons who had been imprisoned on 
suspicion of being Royalists were brutally massacred.* 
Petion made no opposition to these atrocities, yet was 
soon thrown aside as too moderate. The Municipal 
government, or Commune^ was then administered by 
the most bloodthirsty leaders of the populace. 

The National Convention — the most violent of the 

* The monsters who murdered these unhappy people, estimated at 
eight thousand, were paid 24 sous each per day by the Commune. 
Thiers relates that the life of a young girl was granted her, on the 
condition of her drinking a bowl of the blood of a fellow- prisoner. 



FRANCE. 109 

three Assemblies which had appeared since July, 1789 
— met in September, 1792, in the Palace of the 
Tuileries. The parties of the Montague and the 
Gironde, who had only engaged in skirmishes in the 
Legislative Assembly, were destined in this to come 
into conflict. 

The principal leaders of the Mountain were Robes- 
pierre and Danton. 

Robespierre was cold and reserved in disposition, 
dogmatic in opinion, and domineering in character. 
He was clear and sententious as a speaker, but always 
passionless. A lawyer by profession, he was sent as 
a Deputy to the Tiers-Etat, or National Assembly, 
where he attracted no attention. His aim was to 
control the Revolution, and thus become Chief of the 
State. For this purpose he became the Head of the 
Club of the Jacobins, composed of all the desperadoes 
that thronged to Paris. He also obtained complete 
sway over the Commune, or Municipal government. 
With these auxiliaries, he proposed to exterminate 
every rival that might oppose his ambition. He 
hoped to manage the Convention by sending to the 
block the Girondists, who would be sure to resist his 
schemes of slaughter. 

Danton was also a lawyer, but a striking contrast 
to Robespierre. Singularly endowed for a popular 
leader, his intelligence was prompt, his energy prodi- 
gious, and his courage reckless. He threw himself 
into the Revolution from love of action, more than 
from conviction or ambition. He founded the Club 
of the Cordeliers, of which Marat, Hebert, &c., were 
members, and this Club even surpassed its rival, the 
Jacobins, in ferocity. He stimulated the massacres 
of September, 1792, and hesitated at no atrocity that 



I lO AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

promoted the Eevolution. Robespierre calmly plotted 
wholesale carnage to arrive at the Dictatorship; Dauton 
passionately shared in universal butchery to promote 
the Cause he had espoused. 

The leaders of the Girondists were men of higher 
culture and nobler sentiments than these chiefs of 
the Mountain, and therefore less influential with the 
populace of Paris. They sustained the Revolution to 
renovate France, and not to tyrannize over it anew. 
None of them, therefore, acquired the same promi- 
nence as the two unscrupulous chiefs of the Mountain. 

The day the Convention assembled, Sei)tember 21st, 

1792, the Monarchy was abolished, and the Republic 
j)roclaimed. Absolute power was assumed by the 
Convention ; political and social Equality decreed ; 
by which law no superiority in talent, position, 
or fortune was in future to be acknowledged. In 
November an appeal was addressed to the people of 
all nations to rise against Monarchy. In January 17th, 

1793, the Convention by a majority of 11 out of 721 
votes condemned Louis XVI. to death. He was exe- 
cuted on 21st of same month.* In February, war was 
proclaimed against England, Holland, and Spain, 
and a levy of 300,000 men was ordei-ed. In October, 
the Convention annulled the Gregorian calendar, and 
decreed that the French era should compute from the 
date of the Republic, September 22nd, 1792.t 

Robespierre and Danton had concocted a scheme for 
getting the Executive power into the hands of their 
party ; and they manoeuvred the Convention into 

* The Kini? died with unruffled composure. Addressing the crowd 
he said, " I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge. I pardon 
those who have decreed my death, and I pray to God that the blood 
you are now going to shed may never be visited on France." 

'\ This absurd arrangement was repealed in 1806 by Napoleon I. 



FRANCE, III 

creating, April, 1793, a ^'Committee of Public Safety," 
which was to wield Supreme power over France, 
reporting at intervals to the Convention. They now 
found tliemselves strong enough to assaittheir anta- 
gonists, the Grirondists, whom they accused of seek- 
ing to check the Revolution and betray France. 
They were supported by the two clubs under their 
administration, the Jacobins and Cordeliers, as well 
as by the Commune, which they entirely controlled. 
By these means they roused the Parisian populace to 
insurrection, and on May 31st, the leading Girondist 
Deputies were imprisoned. 

The Convention was now the tool of Robespierre 
and Danton. It was promptly decided to paralyze all 
France bv fear. The " Reio^n of Terror " was inausfu- 

I/O o 

rated. A '' Revolutionary Tribunal," without appeal, 
was decreed to try all ^'suspected" persons. A law 
detailing who were suspected persons embraced every 
one whom the Terrorists chose to destroy. A ^'Re- 
volutionary Army " was organized to march about 
France, to shoot down the opponents of the Revolu- 
tion. Committees were instituted in every village to 
receive denunciations, and the guillotine soon disposed 
of the accused. Absolute power, far greater than the 
Monarchy ever possessed, was lodged in the hands of 
the '* Committee of Public Safety," which represented 
the majority of the Convention. Its control over the 
lives and property of every individual in France was 
undisputed. A tyranny so complete never existed, 
not even in the days of Nero. It was wielded in the 
name of Liberty, but it was soon evident that this cry 
was a pretext. 

The extent of slauo^hter committed during- the'^Reiiru 
of Terror " is unparalleled in the annals of crime. 



112 



AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 



No class was spared ; high and low, rich and poor, 
suifered alike. More than a million of persons* 
were sacrificed, merely to spread terror over the land, 
so that no one might venture to contest the authority 
of the ^^ Committee of Public Safety." 

The details of these terrible scenes would fill 
volumes and horrify every reader. On October 16th, 
1793, Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI., was 
executed, t On the 31st., the leaders of the Girondist 



* Prudhomme has given the following appallin 
victims of the Kevolution : — 

Nobles, 

Noble women, .... 
Wives of labourers and artizans, 
Religieuses, .... 
Priests, ..... 
Conimon persons, not noble, 
Guillotined Vjy sentence of the Revolutionary 
Women died of premature child-birth, 
In child-birth from grief, . 
Women killed in La Vendee, 
Children killed in La Vendee, 
Men slain in La Vendue, 
Victims under Carrier at Nantes, 
Of whom were, — 

Children shot. 

Children drowned, . 

Women shot, .... 

Women drowned, . 

Priests shot, .... 

Priests drowned, 

Nobles drowned, 

Artizans drowned. 

Victims at Lyons, . 



account of the 



1,278 

750 

1,467 

350 

1,135 

lo,«23 

Tribunal, 



18,603 

3,400 

343 

15,000 

2-2,0()0 

900,000 

32,000< 



500 

1,500 

264 

500 

300 

460 

1,400 

5,300 



31,000 



Total, 1,022,351 

In this enumeration are not comprehended the massacres at Ver- 
sailles, at the Abbaye, the Carmelites or other prisons on September 2, 
the victims of the Glaciere of Avignon, those shot at Toulon and Mar- 
seilles, or the persons slain in the litile town of Bedoiu, the whole 
population of which perished. 

t '"At four o'clock in the morning of the day of her execution, the 
Queen wrote a letter to the Princess Elizabeth. 'To you, my sister,* 
said she, ' I address myself for the last time. I have been condemned, 

* Carrier, finding that the guillotine 6.\<\ not despatch his victims quickly 
enough, caused ships full of them to be floated duwn the river and scuttled. 



FRANCE. 113 

party, twenty-two in all, were also executed. On 6tli 
of November, the Duke of Orleans, who took the 
name of Philip EgaliU^ and voted for the death of 
his cousin the King, went to the guillotine in his 
turn.* 

Of the nine members of the ''' Committee of Public 
Safety," Robespierre was the most influential. He 
was far inferior to Danton in decision and courage, 
but made up for this by his superior activity. Whilst 
Danton gave himself up to luxurious indulgence, the 
plotting, austere Robespierre was cunningly paving his 
way to Supreme Power. He meant to play the role 
of Cromwell ; but though he was the equal of the 
Protector in profound hypocrisy, he was wholly below 
him in capacity and daring. 

The only rival who now stood in his path was Dan- 
ton. The brutal, but popular Marat had been slain in 
July, 1793, by Charlotte Corday, whose motives were 
as patriotic as those of Jeanne d'Arc. The savage 
Hebert, who declared the Convention was too mode- 



not to an ignominious death — that is only for the guilty — but to rejoin 
your brother. I weep only for my children; I hope that one day, 
when they have regained their rank, they may be reunited to you, and 
feel the blessing of your tender care. May my son never forget the 
last words of his father, which I now repeat from myself — Never 
attempt to revenge our death. I die true to the Catholic religion. 
Deprived of all spiritual consolation, I can only seek for pardon from 
Heaven. I ask forgiveness of all who know me. I pray for forgive- 
ness to all my enemies.'' — Alison. 

" When led out to execution, she was dressed in white : she had cut 
off her hair with her own hands. Placed in a tumbrel, with her arms 
tied behind her, she was taken by a circuitous route to the Place de la 
Pk,evolution. Siie ascended the scaffold with a firm and dignified stop, 
as if she had been about to take her place on a throne by the side of 
her husband." — Lacretelle. 

* The Duke, not content with voting the death of his cousin, drove 
in an open carriage to witness his execution, and afterwards gave a 
fete. He spent great sums on the people, and hoped to reach tlie 
throne. As he went to execution, he was hooted by the mob. He 
shrugged his shoulders and said, " They used to applaud me." 

H 



114 ^^ ^^^ TORICAL RE TROSPECT, 

rate, and proposed to transfer all its powers to the 
more sanguinary Commune,^ was by Robespierre's per- 
fidy sent to the scaffold, March, 1794. Of all his 
brother-assassins, there was only one left between 
him and that Supremacy he steadily pursued. Thiers, 
in his '' French Eevolution," attributes to Robespierre 
these reflections : — ^' If Danton were sacrificed, there 
would be left not one prominent name out of the 
^ Committee of Public Safety ; ' and in the Com- 
mittee, there would remain only men of secondary 
importance. By consenting to this sacrifice, he 
would at once destroy his rival, and above all heighten 
his own reputation for virtue, by striking down a man 
accused of having sought money and pleasure." 

It was so resolved, and Robespierre set his satellites 
to work calumniating Danton as a Retrograde, though 
never uttering a word himself. Danton was warned, 
but his reply was, ^' They will not dare." When suspi- 
cion had been aroused, and Robespierre thought the 
mob ready for his purpose, the ^' Committee of Public 
Safety," of which he was the head, ordered Danton's 
arrest.* The Convention was thunderstruck, but 
dreaded, in the presence of Robespierre, to utter a 
protest. Danton now appeared before the ^' Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal " he had created, and which had 
hurried so many innocent victims into eternity. He 
clamored loudly and denounced his Colleagues with 
fury, but without being allowed a defence was sen- 
tenced and executed, April, 1794, along with Camille 
Desmoulins,t and three other of his friends — all 
members of the Convention. 

* As he entered the prison, Danton exclaimerl, " At length I per- 
ceive that in revolutions, the supreme power ultimately rests with the 
most abandoned." 

t When Camille Desmoulins was asked his age by the judge on his 



FRANCE. 115 

** After them," says Mignet, '^no voice was heard for 
some time against the Dictatorship of Terror. It struck 
its silent reiterated^blows from one end of France to 
tlie other. The Girondists had wished to prevent this 
violent reign, the Dantonists to stop it — all perished ; 
and the more enemies the rulers counted, the more 
victims they had to despatch." 

On the 10th of May, 1794, Madame Elizabeth, the 
devoted sister of Louis XVL, was sent to execution, 
and died with the same calm courage as the King and 
Queen.* 

Robespierre was now at the head of France. He 
was the Chief of the ^' Committee of Public Safety," 
and was able to overawe the Commune and the Conven- 
tion, neither of which were well disposed towards him. 
Noone, not even his mostdevoted partisan, or humblest 
satellite, felt safe. His frown was a summons to the 
guillotine. History records no tyranny so bloody and 
so inexorable as the Dictatorship of Robespierre. 
For this, then, all that was noble, grand, and good in 
France had been sacrificed. For this, a million of 
men, women, and children, noble and common, rich 
and poor, had been ruthlessly slain. t 

Robespierre began to feel that such a Regime must 
soon prove insupportable, and he showed a desire to 



trial, he replied : ^' Trente-trois ans, Vage clu sans-culotte Jesus Christ 
lorsquil mourut " — " 'I he age of the democrat Jesus Christ when He 
died." The term *' sa«s-cwZo('ie " was applied to the extreme llevolu- 
tionists at the time. 

* In going to the guillotine, her handkerchief fell from her neck, 
and exposed her to the gaze of the multitude. She said to her execu- 
tioners, " In the name of modesty, I entreat you to cover my bosom." 

+ Til iers says that at this epoch, "Death was rapidly descending 
from the upper to the lower classes of society." We find at this period 
on the list of the Revolutionary Tribvmal, tailors^ shoemakers, hair- 
dressers, butchers, farmers, publicans, nay even labouring men, con- 
demned fur sentiments and language alleged as counter-revolutionary. 



1 16 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

conciliate society. In May, 1794, he ordered the Con- 
vention to proclaim the Existence of a Supreme Bein^, 
in opposition to a previous Vote which had abro^^ated 
God. Up to this period, the savage fury of the 
Revolution had defied all authority human and divine. 
Not only were all the laws and institutions of France 
overthrown, but Christianity itself was ridiculed and 
abolished. France, stript of law, bereft of religion, 
paralyzed by terror, lay weltering in gore at the feet 
of a handful of brutal men who mocked at the havoc 
which surrounded them. There is no instance in 
history of a Nation reduced to such an extremity; and 
Robespierre, though insensible to human sympathies, 
had sense enough to perceive tbat such a state of 
things could only be transitory; and that to avert 
Anarchy among men, it is necessary to acknowledge 
the wonderful Order on which the Universe reposes — 
in other words, to recognize a First Cause or Supreme 
Being. 

On the occasion of the Convention admitting the 
existence of a Supreme Being, May, 1794, Robespierre 
delivered a pompous harangue, wherein he stated that 
the Government, whilst proclaiming the worship of a 
Supreme Being, had no idea of restoring the Clergy. 
"- What is there," he exclaimed, '' in common between 
Priests and God ? Priests are to morality what quacks 
are to medicine. How different is the God of Nature 
from the God of Priests ! I know nothing so nearly 
resembles Atheism as tlie Religions which they have 
framed. By grossly misrepresenting the Supreme 
Being, they have annihilated belief in Him as far as 
lay in their power." 

But though the Dictator was willing to give back 
religion and its consolations to desolated France, he 



FRANCE. 117 

refused from fear or ambition to relax his bloody 
terrorism. He hurried through the Convention a 
law dispensing with witnesses and official defenders 
for the unfortunate people dragged before the '^ Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal," which daily sent a hundred or more 
to the guillotine. He organized a legion of spies to 
denounce the most inoffensive. His only motive 
seemed to be to maintain his power by indiscriminate 
carnage. 

At this time — May, 1794 — the "- Committee of 
Public Safety," of which he was the head, ^^ exercised," 
as Thiers remarks, " an absolute dictatorship." 
They were all regarded as dictators ; but it was 
Robespierre in particular, whose high influence began 
to dazzle all eyes. It w^as customary to say no 
longer that the Committee wills it^ but that Robes- 
pierre wills it. Fouquier Tinville* said to a person 
whom be threatened with the guillotine, " If it please 
Robespierre, thou shalt go before it." The agents of 
the Government constantly named Robespierre in all 
their operations, and referred to him as the source 
from which everything emanated. Thus, after wading 
through seas of blood, after climbing over mountains 
of headless bodies, after consigning to destruct:ion 

* Fouquier Tinville was the government prosecutor before the 
Revolutionary Tribunal, and Dumas was the president. Fouquier 
seemed actually to revel in his daily butcheries. He had batches of 
sixty brought in and condemned at one time, but said this was waste 
of time, and ordered that space should be made for a hundred and 
fifty. One day a prisoner's name was not on the list, and he cried out, 
*' I am not accused, my name is not on your list." "Give me your 
name," said Fouquier, "There it is on the list now, go to the scaffold 
with the rest." In June, 1794, Fouquier exclaimed with glee, that wi^h 
the aid of Robespierre's new law to facilitate executions, he would be 
able to empty the prisons. "We shall be able to inscribe on their 
doors — 'These Houses to let.' " " It go«s well," he added, " heads fall 
like tiles, but it must go better next decade. I must have 450 at 
least." This monster was arrested three days after Robespierre, and 
beheaded in his turn. 



1 1 8 AN HIS TORI C A L RE TROSPECT. 

nearly all Lis allies, Robespierre at last reached the pin- 
nacle of Sovereign Power, June, 1794; but ere he could 
seat himself. Providence, as if in derision, hurled him 
precipitately into the same hideous gulf with his 
innumerable victims. For almost immediately, in the 
very *' Committee of Public Safety" itself, jealousies 
began to break out among his colleagues at his assump- 
tion of exclusive power. 

The leaders of his party — the Mountain — in ^he 
Convention, aware that even the populace of Paris 
were murmuring against the daily useless slaughter 
of the guillotine, began also to protest against the 
prolongation of this horrible terrorism. Robespierre, 
to silence these symptoms of reaction, deliberately 
resolved to execute at once several Members of the 
Committee and some fifty Deputies of the Conven- 
tion. The Club of the Jacobins, composed of desperate 
men, was devoted to him. The Commune, which had 
the government of Paris in its hands and controlled 
all its military force, was wholly under his sway. He 
little dreamt that the Convention, always so submis- 
sive, would dare to confront such formidable odds. 
All was ready for the new murders he had jdanned, 
when Robespierre appeared on the 26th July, 1794, in 
the Convention to demand the arrest of the Members 
he had doomed. To his amazement he found himself 
bearded and denounced on all. sides. His crimes were 
enumerated, and his downfall demanded. He made 
great efforts to speak, but his voice Avas drowned in 
shouts of fury. Livid with rage, and foaming at the 
mouth, he attempted to speak during a momentary 
lull, but his voice failed. ^' It is the blood of Danton 
chokes thee," said a member. The Convention 
decreed his arrest, and that of his two allies, St. 



FRANCE, 119 

Just and Couthon. The brutal Commandant of Paris, 
Henriot, and the Mayor of the Commune^ were also 
taken into custody. Robespierre and his companions, 
however, were rescued by a force of the Commune 
which had called on the forty-eight Sections of Paris 
to send their military contingent to the Hotel de 
Ville. It was a critical moment, but the Convention 
displayed great energy and courage. They appointed 
a member, Barras, to command the troops that would 
support the Convention, and then sent deputations 
to the various Sections to rally them for the law and 
the Convention. It was soon evident that the san- 
guinary despotism of Robespierre had lost its hold on 
the popular mind ; for the citizen troops of the 
Sections refused to obey the Commune^ and declared 
for the Convention. Robespierre and his satellites 
were ensconced in the Hotel de Ville. and when the 
officers of the Convention entered, some jumped from 
the windows, whilst Robespierre attempted suicide. 
He was seized and executed the following day, to- 
gether with twenty of his accomplices.* 

* " When Robespierre ascended the fatal car, his head was enveloped 
in a bloody clotli, his color was livid, and his eyes sunk. When the 
procession came opposite his house it stopped, and a ^roup of women 
danced round the bier of him whose chariot-wheels they would have 
dragged the day before over a thousand victims. Robespierre mounted 
the scaffold last, and the moment his head fell the applause was 
tremendous. In some cases the event was announced to the prisoners 
by the waving of pocket handkerchiefs from the tops of houses." — 
Hazlitt. 

"Robespierre was executed on the spot where Louis XVI. and 
Marie Antoinette hud suffered. He shut his eyes, but could not close 
lbs ears against the imprecations of the multitude. A woman, break- 
ing from the crowd, exclaimed, ' Murderer of all my kindred ! your 
agony fills me with joy. Descend to hell, covered with the curses of 
every mother in France ! ' When he ascended the scaffold, the 
executioner tore the bandage from his face ; the lower jaw fell on his 
breast, and he uttered a yell which froze every heart with horror. For 
some minutes the frightful figure was held up to the multitude ; he 
was then placed under the axe. ' Yes, Robespierre, there is a God,' 



120 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

With the death of Robespierre, the blood-stained 
inarch of the Revolution was arrested. 

In reviewing its career, it may be said that from 
July, 1789, when insurrection broke out in Paris, 
down to 1792, the Revolution achieved immense 
benefits for France. All the Reforms that her 
writers and statesmen had invoked were accom- 
plished. The Feudal fabric was finally over- 
thrown, and the monstrous oppression of centuries 
was suppressed and avenged. But then appeared 
a band of reckless Demagogues, who, for the sake 
of power, played on the passions of the populace, 
and stimulated them to horrible deeds. By these 
means, Marat became an idol, Danton a minister, 
and Robespierre a dictator. The punishment which 
overtook them all was the just penalty of their criminal 
ambition. 

After the fall of Robespierre Supreme Power re- 



said a poor man, as he approached the lifeless body of one so lately the 
object of dread." — Alison. 

" On the very day of Robespierre's arrest, his adherent, Dumas, who 
was executed with hiui, had signed the warrant ft)r putting sixty 
persons to death. In the confusion, no person thought of arresting 
the guillotine. They all suffered." — Scott's "Life of Napoleon." 

" To the profound hypocrisy of Cromwell, he joined the cruelty of 
Sylla, without possessing any of the great military and political 
qualities of either of these ambitious adventurers. To observe the 
emphasis with which he boasted of having proclaimed the existence of 
the Supreme Being, one might have said that, according to his opinion, 
God would not have existed without him." — Annual Register, 1794. 

" In the year 1785 he wrote an essay against the punishment of 
death, which gained the prize awarded by the Royal Society of Metz." 
— Quarterly Review. 

" When Robespierre first appeared in the world he prefixed the 
aristocratical particle de to his name. He was entered at college as 
de Robespierre ; he was elected to the States General as de Robespierre; 
but after the abolition of all feudal distinctions, he rejected the de, 
and called himself Robespierre." — Quarterly Review. 

" In the space of eight or ten days after the fall of Robespierre, out 
of ten thousand suspected persons, not one remained in the prisons of 
Paris." — Laceetelle. 



FRANCE, 1 2 I 

verted to the Convention. Under tlie impulse of 
outraf,^ed humanity, vigorous measures to repress the 
desperadoes who had converted France into a slaugh- 
ter-house were adopted. The Revolutionary Tribunal 
was suppressed, and Fouquier Tinville executed. 
The wretch Carrier, who destroyed 32,000 people at 
Nantes, was also sent to the scaffold. The club of 
the Jacobins was closed ; the surviving Members of 
Robespierre's ^^ Committee of Public Safety " were 
tried, March, 1795, and transported; the Sections of 
Paris were disarmed ; the churches restored to public 
worship. 

Later in the year the young daughter of Louis 
X^^L, afterwards Duchess of Angouleme, was given 
to the Austrians in exchange for certain prisoners 
they had made. Her brother the Dauphin had died 
in prison.* 

THE DIRECTORY. 

Having thus calmed the perturbed mind of Paris 
and of France, the Convention set to work construct- 
ing a Constitution. After discussing it for three 

* *' Simon who was entrusted with tlie bringing up of the Dauphin, 
had had the cruelty to leave the poor child absolutely alone ; unex- 
ampled barbarity, to leave an unhappy and sickly infant eight years 
old in a great room, locked and bolted in, with no other resource than 
a broken bell which he never rang, so greatly did he dread the people 
whom its sound would have brought to him ! He preferred wanting 
everything to the sight of his persecutors. His bed had not been 
touched for six months, and he had not strength to make it himself ; 
it was alive with bugs and vermin still more disgusting. His linen and 
his person were covered with them. P'or more than a year he had no 
change of shirt or stockings ; every kind of filth was allowed to accu- 
mulate in his room. His window was never opened, and the infectious 
smell of this horrid a|)artment was so dreadful that no one could bear 
it. He passed his days wholly without occupation. They did not 
even allow him light in the evening. This situation affected his mind 
as well as his body, and he fell into a frightful atrophy." — Duchess 

D'AWtJOULEME. R 



1 2 2 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

months, they decreed tlie adoption of the " Consti- 
tution of the Year III.," as it was called, Aui:nst, 
1795. By this instrument the Executive power was 
given to five persons called the " Directors." The 
Legislative power was divided between Two Chambers, 
— the one, called the " Council of the Ancients," com- 
posed of two hundred and fifty members ; the other, 
the ^' Council of Five Hundred," consisting of that 
number. The Directory was entrusted merely with the 
execution of the laws passed by the two Councils ; 
Avith the direction, not the declaration of war ; with 
the negotiation, not the ratification of treaties ; and 
the five persons of whom it was composed decided 
by a majority. The Councils were elected by Uni- 
versal Suifrage in the second degree, and the Direc- 
tory was nominated by the two Councils. The 
judicial authority was committed to Elective Judges. 
The Press was declared free, as well as all Religions, 
which were not to receive support from the State. 
The Constitutic»n, however, totally ignored the claims 
of the towns of France to Municipal independence ; 
they were all retained under the control of the Central 
Authority. 

The Convention decreed that the new Legislative 
body should be composed of two-thirds of their 
own body, and that one new third only should be 
elected. They seemed to dread that an entirely new 
legislature would turn round, under the influence of 
reaction, and punish many of those Members who 
had taken so active a part in the excesses of the 
Revolution. The Decree ordering the re-election of 
two-thirds of the Convention gave great umbrage to 
its numerous enemies, and an agitation was set on 
foot with the cry, *' We accept the Constitution and 



FRANCE. 123 

reject the Decree." All the Departments of France 
voted the Constitution unanimously, and sustained 
the Decree by an immense majority. In Paris, how- 
ever, the opposition was kept up and stimulated by 
the agents of the Hoyalists, by the journalists, and 
the literary men who were anxious to enter the new 
legislature. They j^ropagated the belief that the 
Convention, if re-elected, would restore the Reign of 
Terror. 

Filially, an Insurrection was organized, and the 
citizens of Paris, to the number of 40,000 men, en- 
rolled themselves. The Convention could muster in 
its defence only some 80C0 men, but 5000 of these 
were composed of troops of the line. Barras, the 
Member who had defeated the Commune^ and Robes- 
pierre in July, was named the Commander of the 
troops of the Convention. He appointed as his second 
in command a young soldier of the name of Napoleon 
Bonaparte.* As Commandant of the artillery at the 
siege of Toulon he devised the plan which recap- 
tm-ed it. He afterwards obtained distinction in other 
operations, and was made General of Brigade. He 
was at this time in Paris unemployed and in great 
indigence, t 

* Napoleon was the second son of Charles Bonaparte, and was born 
at Ajaccio, Corsica, then belonging to France, in 1769. The family 
was noble, and of Italian origin, dating from the twelfth century. 
Napoleon entered the Military School of Brienne at ten years old, and 
was made a Sub-Lientenant in 1785, then sixteen. Napoleon had four 
brotl)ers and three sisters. , 

i* "At this period Napoleon passed most of his time in meditation 
and i-etireuient. He went out but seldom, and had few acquaintanees. 
He endeavoured to forget the sense of mortification and neglect by a 
more intense api>lication to his professional studies. He sometimes 
went to the theatre, and frequented ihe Corazza coffee house in the 
Palais Royal, where the celebrated Talma is said once to have paid hia 
reckoning for him, for which he had left his sword in pledge." — 
Hazlitt. 



124 • AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

Barras believed in his capacity, and selected liim 
at this critical moment as far more competent to 
deal with the situation than himself. Bonaparte was 
no sooner in command, than he seized all the artillery, 
which was parked at Sablons near Paris. He thus 
secured himself an immense advantage, and at just 
the right moment, for the cannon had scarcely been 
removed before a detachment of the Sections came in 
quest of it. Napoleon then made all his dispositions, 
and awaited the attack, which began at four p.m. on 
the 13th Vendemiaire (October 5th), and by six p.m. 
the assailants were routed, and the victory of the 
Convention complete. 

The rough handling of the Parisians by the reso- 
lute Bonaparte was a lesson they long remembered. 
Rebellion in the streets disappeared, and the new 
Government went to work with great vigor. In the 
place of the Commune^ which fell with Robespierre, 
Paris was divided, February, 1796, into twelve separate 
Municipalities, so as to render future insurrections 
less dangerous.* 

The Directory resolved upon two important objects : 
first, to put down the civil war in la VencUe^ west of 
France; and this they accomplished in six months; 
next, to carry on with energy the war against the 
foreign nations in conflict with France. Moreau was 

* The reader may remember that the old citj' government of Paris 
was abolished in 1789, and a new organization called the Commune 
sul)stituted, which concentrated all the municipal power in the hands 
of a Mayor. The object of this was simply to give the Revolutionists, 
through their instrument, the Mayor, the entire control of Paris. To 
get rid of this dangerous centralization of poAver, Paris was divided by 
the Convention, as stated above, into twelve municipalities, with as 
many Mayors ; and this arrangement has been maintained to the pre- 
sent day. It was temporarily superseded by the Commune of 1871, 
but was immediately restored on the collapse of that sanguinary insur- 
rection. 



FRANCE, 12 S 

made Commnrder of the arni}^ destined for Germany ; 
and Bonaparte, then twenty-six, obtained to his joy 
the army of Italy, at the time contending with Pied- 
mont and Austria. The prodigies achieved by the 
young Corsican are briefly recounted in a foot-note.* 
AVhilst victory abroad rendered revolutionary 
France alarming to Europe, the political caldron at 
Paris was boiling fiercely. Three political Factions 
were struggling to obtain power. The Royalists 
aspired to restore the Monarchy; the *' Patriots," as 
they styled themselves, desired to restore the reign of 
terror; and the Constitutionalists were anxious to 
preserve what existed. By degrees, and regardless of 
the results, cliques were formed in both the Upper 
and Lower Chambers of the Legislature to upset the 
Directory. The Royalists and Patriots hoped if they 
succeeded to seize on the Government. Besides the 
liostile combinations in the two Chambers, the Direc- 
tory was divided against itself. Its two prominent 
members were Barrasf and Carnot,! who detested 

* General Bonaparte took command of the "Army of Italy," April, 
1795, consisting of 30,000 men, beaten, disorganized, without food, 
clothes, or money. In a year he overthrew five armies, each more 
than double his own, and led by the first generals of Austria. He 
conquered Lombardy, and extiiij.aushed the ancient governments of 
Venice and Genoa, The King of Sardinia, tlie Pope, the Dukes of 
Florence, Parma, and Modena, begged for peane, and finally the Em- 
peror of Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, October, 1797, 
ceding to France Lombardy, the left bank of the Rhine, and the 
Austrian Netherlands. In Germany the French army under Moreau 
was also victorious, but the results were less important. 

t Barras was of noble family, and began life as a soldier. He joined 
the revolution, and was active in the capture of the Bastille. He 
fiirured throughout the revolution; he owed his escape in the Reign 
of Terror to being on duty with the armies. He was the real head of 
the Directory till its fall. He was able, adroit, unscrupulous, and dis- 
solute. He died in 1829, aged 74, at Paris, qnite forgotten. 

X Carnot was in the army when the revolution broke out, and im- 
mediately espoused the side of the opponents of the monarchy. He 
^\ as a member of all the legislative botlies, as well as of the Conunittee 
of Safety. He abhorred Robespierre and his bloody acts, and had no 



126 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

each otlier. A crisis was inevitable. Whilst the 
politicians in both Chambers were preparing for 
the explosion, and the Directors were intriguing 
against each other, iha mob of Paris to the surprise 
of all were passive, if not indifferent. They seen ed 
to have lost the ferocity which had transformed them 
from men into demons. Whether they had discovered 
that in all the changes they got nothing but the 
blows, whilst the Politicians pocketed all the profits ; 
or whether the existence in Paris of a military force 
the Directory could depend on cowed them, the popu- 
lace of Paris it was evident were no longer disposed 
to fight for another revolution, and left the dema- 
gogues to settle the matter to their liking. 

On the 18th Fructidor— Se[)tember 4th, 1797— the 
catastrophe came. Of the five Directors two joined 
Barras, making a majority. They ordered the mili- 
tary under General Augereau to surround the Cham- 
bers and seize the Members opposed to the Govern- 
ment. Two hundred were arrested and prom|)tly 
transported. Forty-two journals of the Poyalists were 
suppressed. All were doomed who attacked the 
Directory which now assumed Dictatorial power. The 
two Directors in minoritj^, Carnot and Barthelemy, 
resigned, and were re|)laced. This Pevolution was 
bloodless, a proof that revolutionary passions had 
cooled, and that the Opinion of the country kept the 
Politicians in check. 

This coup cVetat was effected by means of regular 
troops, and not by the mob as hitherto, showing that 

share in them, being always absent with the armies. In military 
administration he was unrivalled. It was said of him that he 
*' oi-ganized victory." After leaving the Directory he was frequently 
employed by Napoleon. He possessed great capacity and high prin- 
ciples, and died in 1823, aged 70, leaving a stainless reputation. 



FRANCE. 127 

the military men who had been created by the wars 
the RevoUition provoked, were destined to supersede 
the demagogues who had made it. From this time it 
will be seen that Soldiers, and not Politici-ans, were to 
govern France for a long period. 

In December, 1797, General Bonaparte received a 
splendid ovation in Paris from the Directory. His 
renown filled Europe, and France regarded him as 
destined to restore her long-lost divinities. Law and 
Order. The Directory and the Politicians were already 
so jealous of his popularity that he was left without 
empU^yment. Bonaparte knew the necessity of keep- 
ing the public eye upon him; and after incessant 
efforts he induced the Directory to give him an army 
to invade Egypt. He embarked with some 30,000 
men in May, 1798, and in a brief period conquered the 
whole country, where he remained a little over a year. 
His constant victories, bold acts, and striking procla- 
mations added daily to his glory, and electrified France. 

During 1798, the Directory maintained order at 
home, and added to its credit by victories abroad. 
Yet the state of things was unsatisfactory. Every- 
body felt the Government was only provisional : the 
factions were always conspiring : some powerful hand, 
some master intellect, was necessary to crush tliem. 

In July, 1799, another outbreak occurred. All the 
parties in the two Chambers, Royalists, Terrorists, 
and Constitutionalists united against the Directory, 
which was always divided against itself. This time 
there was no majority to call in the military. Only 
two of the Directors i)ulled together, Barras and 
Sieyes : the other three were unable to unite. The 
consequence was, that these three resigned, and were 
replaced. The Government now was weaker than 



128 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECr, 

ever, and the political bands were intent on a desperate 
struggle for power. Thus after ten years of terrible 
convulsions, France seemed no nearer to the promised 
land of Liberty and Order than at the beginning. 

Speaking of this epoch, October, 1799, Thiers 
remarks — '* It was not so much a defender that was 
needed at this moment as a chief to seize the reins 
of government. The mass of the popnlation desired 
at any cost quiet, order, the end of dissensions, and 
unity of government. It was afraid of the Terrorists, 
of the Royalists, of the Chouans, of all the parties. 
It was the moment of marvellous fortune for him who 
should allay all their fears."* And it was at this propi- 
tious moment that the arrival of General Bonaparte 
from Egypt was announced, and the nation rose to greet 
him. Bonaparte was then just thirty, and the greatest 
Captain and profoundest Politician of his time. He 
accomplished a double object by his trip to the East. 
He added to his renown, and avoided contact with a 
disorganized Government and unscrupulous Factions. 
But his hour had come. He saw it with his eagle- 
glance ; he seized it with his lion-courage. f Without 

* Another author gives the following graphic sketch of France at the 
same time. — "Merit was generally persecuted ; all men of honour 
chased from public situations ; robbers everywhere assembled in their 
infernal caverns; the wicked were in power; the apologists of the 
system of terror were thundering in the tribune ; spoliation was 
re-established under the name of Jalse loans ; thousands of victims 
were already designed, under the name of hcjstages ; the signal for 
pillage, murder, and conflagration, anxiously looked for, couched in 
the words 'the Country is in Danger !' the citizens had no secuiity for 
their lives ; the State for its finances. All Europe was in arms against 
us. Our armies were routed ; our conquests were lost ; the territory 
of the republic menaced with invasion. Such was the situation of 
France previous to the revolution of the 18th of Brumaire and the 
establishment of the Consulate." 

f A packet of French papers reached Bonaparte in Egypt, Devour- 
ing their contents, he exclaimed, " Heavens, my prediction is verified ; 
the fools have lost Italy. All the fruits of our victories are gone. I 
must leave Egypt." 



FRANCE. 129 

orders he crossed the Mediterranean amid the enemy's 
cruisers, and landing in France sped on to Paris. As 
he hurried onwards, bells rang, bonfires blazed, and 
shouts echoed from hill to hill. He comprehended this 
outburst : France hailed him as her Deliverer from 
new scenes of blood and anarchy. 

He entered the Capital, October 18th, and every 
General came to offer his sword.* This was the main 
point. He sounded the Politicians. All the discon- 
tented and ambitious gave their adhesion. Two of the 
Directors, Sieyes and Duces, agreed to resign : another, 
Barras, was ready to imitate them. On the 18th 
Brumaire, November 9th, 1799, the signal was given. 
Three of the five Directors resigned ; and so the Exe- 
cutive power was dissolved. The Two Chambers were 
left : the Upper Chamber took the side of Bonaparte, 
and appointed him by decree Commander of all the 
troops in Paris. The Capital was quiet the whole day : 
Bonaparte forbade any interference with business.! 

On the succeeding day, November 10th, the Two 
Chambers were to meet at St. Cloud. The General 
entered the hall of the Upper Chamber, and harangued 
the Members, who replied with hearty applause. He 
then went among the "Five Hundred," but had scarcely 
entered when he was surrounded and furiously de- 
nounced. The leaders of the Eoyalists and Terrorists 
who saw that the Government, at which they aimed, 
was falling into the hands of a great Soldier, were 

* Three only held back, Bernadotte, Jourdan, and Augereau. 

t The chief of the police had ordered the barriers to be closed, &c. 
Bonaparte indignant said to him, " Wherefore all these precautions? 
We go with the nation, and by its strength alone. Let no citizen be 
disturbed, and let the triumph of opinion have nothing in common with 
the transactions of days in which a faction prevailed." 

6* I 



130 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

frantic with rage. Probably the Greneral, like Caesar, 
would have been assassinated, were it not that his 
enemies dreaded the fury of the people. After a 
stormy scene, Bonaparte retired. The President of the 
" Five Hundred," Lucien Bonaparte, then declared the 
Lower Chamber dissolved, and called on the troops to 
disperse it. A battalion of Grrenadiers appeared at 
the doors, and unlike their courageous predecessors of 
the Convention, the Members fled in all directions. 
They knew too well that the country was weary of 
anarchy. 

The next day the Upper Chamber met, and created 
a Consulate of three members, Bonaparte, Ducos, and 
Sieyes. A portion of the Lower Chamber confirmed 
these decrees. Bonaparte was now at the head of the 
Grovernment. The Executive power that had passed 
from the King into the hands of the " Committee' of 
Public Safety" — all Politicians — and then into the 
hands of the Directory — again Politicians — now was 
deposited in the firm grasp of a Soldier. Military 
power became dominant, and the reign of the Dema- 
gogues was over. 



THE CONSULATE. 

NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Absolute Power was restored in France when Bona- 
parte became First Consul. This was the inevitable 
result of the fearful vicissitudes through which the 
country had passed since the Insurrection of Jul}^ 
1789. So complete was the disorganization into which 
everything had fallen that it required nothing less 
than the wonderful genius and resolute will of Bona- 
parte to revive the civil and moral life of the Nation. 
With matchless sagacity and vigor he began the work 
of reconstruction. 

The three Consuls named by the late Chamber of the 
"Ancients" — Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Ducos — set to 
work immediately to draw up a definite Constitution. 
Sieyes, who believed himself specially endowed for 
such a task, proposed an elaborate Scheme of Grovern- 
ment which the practical genius of Bonaparte rejected 
as impracticable, if not absurd. A plan was drawn 
up under his direction concentrating the Executive 
power entirely in his own hands, with the title of 
First Consul, and for a period of ten years. Two 
other Consuls were created as " Advisers." A Senate 
of sixty-six Members, and a Legislative Body of three 
hundred were added more for ornament than utility ; 
for no power was confided to them — not even the 



132 A N HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

privilege of debate. The Senate was nominated by 
the First Consul ; the Legislative Body was elected by 
the Senate : therefore both were comiDOsed solely of the 
adherents of Bonaparte. 

This Constitution, which made him absolute master 
of France, was submitted to the sanction of the Nation 
3rd December, 1799, and was approved by a Vote of 
three millions and upwards. 

He next turned his attention to military matters, 
reorganizing every arm of the Service with wonderful 
celerity. In May, 1800, he crossed the Alps with an 
army, fell unawares on the Austrians at Marengo in 
June, and regained possession of Italy. He forced 
Austria to make Peace by the Treaty of Luneville in 
February, 1801. In March, 1802, he concluded a Peace 
vvith England, Spain, and Holland by the Treaty of 
Amiens. 

This general pacification enabled him to enter on 
that vast scheme of internal Reform which constitutes 
his strongest claim to the gratitude of France. He 
ordered the entire legal system to be reorganized ; and 
the most eminent Jurisconsults — Tronchet, Portalis, 
Merlin — were appointed to draw up new Codes, Civil, 
Commercial, and Penal.* 

The Civil Code, known as the Code Napoleon, went 
finally into effect in March, 1804. Up to that period, 
France had been under the control of a variety of laws 
which were often contradictory — the written or Eoman 
laws ; the laws of custom, or Common Law ; also those 
known as the Eoyal Ordinances : and Bonaparte rendered 

* The Civil Code was divided into three books. The first treated of 
persons ; the second of property ; the third of the modes of acquiring 
property. 



FRANCE. 133 

an immense service to his country by converting this 
legal chaos into order and unity. 

In 1801, he made a Concordat with Pius VI I. which 
restored the Catholic religion and the Papal authority 
in France, taking care to reserve for the Grovernment 
complete control over the Church by the nomination 
of all its officials. In 1802, he instituted the Legion 
of Honor — an Order of Chivalry for tlie reward of 
merit civil or military. 

His popularity had by this time become so univer- 
sal that the Senate, at his instigation, proposed him 
for election as First Consul for life ; and the new 
title was conferred on him in August, 1802, by a 
popular Vote of over three millions and a half.* 

On 14th April of the following year he established 
the Bank of France, which from that day to this h?.3 
been administered with incredible skill. It has sur- 
mounted the immense disasters which have befallen 
France for the last seventy years - three Invasions 
from abroad, and three Revolutions at home. 

During the whole period of the Consulate the 
activity of the First Consul knew no bounds. In 
every direction, and by every means, he sought to 
develop the resources and promote the welfare of 
France. Canals were dug by his orders ; harbors 
were built ; roads and bridges constructed ; taxation 
was reformed ; and education enlarged. All this 
tended to make him more and more the idol of 
France; and in May, 1804, the Senate, again at his 



* The National Convention of 1793 introduced Universal Suffrage 
into France. The Constitution of 1795 maintained it, but with ,<-onio 
small modifications. Napoleon continued it, and it was not abolished 
till the Eestoration in 1815. 



134 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. < 



own suggestion, offered him the Crown as the ^' 

Emperor of the French. The Nation vas consulted i 

as before ; and by a Vote of over three millions and a [j 

half against two thousand, he was raised to the P 

purple. His Coronation took place 2nd December, \ 

1804^ amid great pomp at the Cathedral of Notre 
Dame. Pius VII. came from Kome to consecrate it 
by his presence. 



EMPIRE. 

NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Before giving a short resume of the events of the 
Empire, it may be well to remark that the System of 
Centralization, which attained its fall development 
under Napoleon, owed its origin to events many ages 
before him. The concentration of power in the hands 
of the Central Grovernment began with the struggles 
between the feudal Nobility and the Monarchy. Under 
the Feudal System, as shown, France was broken up 
into endless jurisdictions independent of each other ; 
but as the Monarchy gained ground these local govern- 
ments gradually diminished. Louis XI. gave a great 
impetus to Centralization, and Cardinal Eichelieu 
extended it still more. The Politicians who directed 
the devolution of 1789 carried Centralization far 
beyond their Monarchical predecessors ; for their 
object was to hold France in complete subjection to 
Paris as the centre of all political direction. 

When Napoleon assumed the Grovernment, he found 
the administrative machinery of the Eevolution well 
adapted to his purpose. At that moment whoever 
held Paris controlled France. Every village as well 
as every Department was governed by a Maire and a 
Prefet sent from the Capital. Napoleon really had 
little to do to make the Centralization of Power more 



136 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

absolute than he found it. Certes, it lost nothing of 
its vigor in his iron grasp. 

The rise of the Empire witnessed a formidable Coa- 
lition meant to destroy it. In August, 1805, Eussia, 
Austria, and Naples joined England, already at war 
with France, for its overthrow. The battle of Auster- 
litz, in December, crushed this combination ; and the 
Treaty of Presburg followed, which deprived Austria 
of all her Italian provinces, and raised Wurtemberg 
and Bavaria from Duchies to Kingdoms, for the benefit 
of Napoleon's Grerman allies. Soon after, 1806, the 
King of Naples was dispossessed of his throne, which was 
given to Joseph, the elder brother of Napoleon. An- 
other brother, Louis, was made King of Holland, and 
Murat, a brother-in-law, became Grand-Duke of Berg. 

With a view to consolidate his position in Germany, 
Napoleon proposed to the feudal Princes under the 
tutelage of Austria and Prussia to form a Confederation, 
of which he offered to become the head and protector. 
His scheme was adopted by fourteen Princes ; and thus 
was founded the ' Confederation of the Ehine,' which 
closed the career of the German Empire. 

This event, coupled with the seductions of England 
and Eussia, induced Prussia to enter into a new Coali- 
tion against France. The defeat of Prussia, in October, 
1806, at Jena, and the double rout of Eussia at Eylau, 
in February, and at Friedland in June, 1807, again 
left Napoleon master of the situation. The Treaty of 
Tilsit between Napoleon and Alexander, February, 1807, 
closed the war. It contained sundry secret Articles, 
which amounted to the partition of Europe, exclusive 
of England and Turkey, between them. Prussia was 
despoiled of large territories ; a portion of which was 



FRANCE. 137 

annexed to Westphalia, of which Jerome, the youngest 
brother of Napoleon, was made King. 

At this time, Napoleon planned his '• Continental 
Blockade," to which Russia assented, by which he hoped 
to ruin the commerce of England, in closing all the 
European ports against her. To this effect were issued 
the Berlin and Milan Decrees in November, 1806, and 
in December, 1807. 

The triumph of Napoleon over all the combinations 
of continental Europe seemed to convince him of the 
permanence of his dynasty. In March, 1808, he decreed 
the creation of an Hereditary Nobility. At this period, 
too, he set to work improving and embellishirg Paris, 
and ordered an Exhibition of the Products of French 
Industry. 

The condition of Spain next attracted the Emperor's 
attention. Charles IV. of Spain was wholly under the 
domination of his wife and her favorite, Manuel de 
Godoy, which induced the Prince of the Asturias, the 
King's eldest son, to put himself at the head of a popular 
movement and force his father to abdicate. The French 
Emperor offered himself as an Arbitrator between the 
two ; and the tractable Charles abdicated finally in 
favor of Napoleon, who immediately transferred his 
brother Joseph from Naples to the throne at Madrid. 

This transaction led to a general rising in Spain, in 
which all classes united, and which was powerfully aided 
by an English army. It was the origin of that famous 
Peninsular War, which from 1808 to 1813 witnessed the 
successive defeats of the best French Generals, and 
founded the military fame of the Duke of Wellington. 
During these five years, the French loss has been esti- 
mated at over 400,000 men. 



138 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

In April, 1809, England succeeded in drawing Austria 
into another Alliance against France, which led, by the 
French victory at Wagram in July, to the complete 
subjugation of Austria. Instead of breaking up the 
Austrian Monarchy, as it was in his power to do. Napo- 
leon proposed as the price of peace a marriage with 
Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor Francis. In 
December of this year, he divorced his first wife 
Josephine ; in April, 1810, he married the Archduchess 
of Austria. Napoleon's chief motive in this marriage 
was doubtless to secure the permanent alliance of 
Austria ; and he inferred, besides, it would add to the 
prestige of his dynasty. 

In July of this year Holland was annexed to France, 
and Louis Bonaparte, who opposed the project, fell into 
disfavor. This may be considered the culminating 
point of Napoleon's career. From this period may be 
dated errors which showed that his judgment was 
disturbed by his marvellous success. Some of his best 
auxiliaries, as Fouche and Bernadotte, fell away from 
him ; he quarrelled with the Pope, who excommunicated 
him ; and, worse than all, his " Continental Blockade," 
levelled at England, greatly damaged the commerce of 
France and caused general dissatisfaction. In March, 
1811, Maria Louisa gave birth to a son who was created 
" King of Eome " ; and this was the last boon conferred 
on him by a bounteous Providence. 

Unable to restrain his martial spirit, he declared war 
on Russia in June, 1812, without caring to secure the 
co-operation of Sweden or Turkey. He set out with 
an army of 450,000 men, and marched through Poland 
in pursuit of the Russians, who constantly retreated. 
It was only at Borodino near Moscow that a battle 



FRANCE. 139 

occurred, where the Russians were beaten. On the 14th 
September, Napoleon entered Moscow, and the day 
following a conflagration broke out which destroyed it. 
The Fabian tactics of Russia were then revealed. They 
had retreated before Napoleon only to lure him on to 
Moscow, which was burnt over his head. His situation 
was alarming. He waited for a month in the hope of 
peace; and on October 19th, began a retreat the most 
disastrous which history records. Only a fragment sur- 
vived of the half million of men that left France. 
Quitting his army, he reached Paris in December. 

In the following March,. 1813, Russia was joined 
by Prussia in the war against him, and in August, 
Austria entered the Coalition. Meanwhile England was 
steadily forcing back the French forces in Spain. In 
April, Napoleon again took the field with a new army 
of 350,000 men, and in August defeated at Dresden the 
combined armies of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. In 
October, however, he was defeated at Leipsic through 
the defection of his Saxon auxiliaries, and was forced to 
fall back on France. In January, 1814, the Allies crossed 
the Rhine. The campaign which ensued is considered 
the most brilliant in Napoleon's career. He gained 
repeated victories, and the Allies offered terms of peace, 
which the Emperor rejected. He was manoeuvring to 
enclose the enemy between himself and Paris ; but his 
plan was defeated by the sudden surrender of the Capital 
in March — an event attributed by some to treachery. 
In April he signed his Abdication, and retired to Elba, 
of which the Allies, as if in derision, made him the 
Sovereign. 



RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY. 

NINE TEE NTH CENTUR V. 

Napoleon's downfall brought the old French Monarchy 
back, but under circumstances that rendered it only a 
phantom of its former self. Napoleon wielded the 
absolute power of Louis XIV., and could also boast — 
Vetat^ c'est tnoi. His successor, Louis XVIIL, brother 
of Louis XVI., on the contrary, was transformed into 
that modern invention, yclept a Constitutional King — 
the first which appeared on the continent of Europe. 
On the death of his nephew, the Dauphin, in 1795, he 
took the title of King, and was recognized as such by 
Europe ; and on the Abdication of Napoleon in April, 
1814, the Senate, at the instigation of the European Co- 
alition, called him to the throne. Louis XVIIL began 
his reign in the same month. 

In spite of the moderation of the King, the conduct 
of the Eoyalists and the Clergy was so arrogant and 
reactionary, that the country soon became shocked and 
alienated. Napoleon, perceiving the tide was again 
setting in his favor, forsook his retreat, and boldly 
landed in France, March, 1815. 



THE HUNDRED DAYS. 



Amid the most enthusiastic demonstrations, Napoleon 
made his way from Cannes to Paris, and reascended the 
throne ; his rival, Louis XVIII., retiring on his approach 
to Holland. The Allies, convinced that peace was impos- 
sible whilst the Emperor held power, resolved to renew 
the war, and in three months they advanced on France. 
Napoleon met them finally at Waterloo, and his defeat 
there closed his career. He was exiled by the Allies to 
St. Helena, where he arrived in October, 1815, and 
died in May, 1821. 

As a w^arrior and an administrator, Napoleon is 
ranked with Alexander and Ca3sar of the ancient, and 
Charlemagne of the modern w^orld — considered the 
four greatest men that Europe has produced. He 
rendered eminent service to France by extinguishing 
tlie factions of the Revolution in 1799, and setting up 
a framework of society which has endured in great part 
to the present day. In repressing anarchy, reconsti- 
tuting society, restoring religion, reorganizing educa- 
tion, creating the Code, and in placing France at the 
head of Europe, he established solid claims on the 
admiration of his countrymen.* This, however, com- 
prises the useful part of his career. His insatiable 
thirst for war rendered his political existence incom- 
patible with the safety of Europe, whilst his despotic 

* The Empire founded by Napoleon is regarded as equal to that of 
Charlemagne; for it consisted m 1812 of 130 French departments — 
which included various German and Dutch provinces ; 24 departments 
of Italy annexed to France, and 7 provinces of Iliyria. 



142 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

character was inconsistent with the permanent welfare 
of France, and his overthrow became an imperative 
necessity. His military exploits achieved immortality 
for his name, but yielded to the world nothing save 
wonder and regret. 



SECOND RESTORATION. 



Louis XVIIL reascended the throne in July, 1815. For 
sixteen years had Napoleon held France in his stern 
grip. His intellect, his will, and his glory, had con- 
founded opposition ; but with his disappearance, the 
Nation relapsed once more into the hands of Politicians. 
Tiie Allied Sovereigns and their Statesmen, who en- 
tered Paris a second time in 1815, must have pondered 
deeply over the situation. For twenty-six years France 
had been in their eyes little else than a common nui- 
sance : first with her Revolution, its anarchy, bloodshed, 
and subversive principles ; next with her Napoleonic 
Wars, assailing and subjugating all nations in turn. 
Twice had Europe risen in self-defence, and twice had 
France been stricken down. How to extinguish such 
a volcano must have been a perplexity to the con- 
querors. Various projects were discussed. Should the 
Feudal System be restored ? Should the Absolute 
Monarchy be set up again ? But Feudality without 
the Middle Ages, and Absolute Monarchy without the 
Seventeenth century, would be anachronisms and short- 
lived. Europe, irritated and bewildered, returned 
home, and left France to the solution of her own 
destiny. 



FRANCE. 143 

Napoleon suppressed, and his conquerors gone, 
France, I repeat, fell once more into the possession of 
her Politicians ; and her history since then is simply 
the record of their conflicts for supremacy — each set 
struggling in turn to outwit the others. A new Con- 
stitution, called the " Charter of 1814," inaugurated the 
return of Louis XVIII. This Constitution gave the 
Executive power to the King, and divided the Legislative 
power between two Chambers; an Upper Chamber com- 
posed of Peers, some hereditary and others for life ; and 
a Lower one consisting of Deputies, elected by qualified 
suffrage. 

Two parties immediately sprung up, which were the 
natural product of the circumstances. One consisted 
of the Aristocracy and Clergy, who had been persecuted 
and decimated by the Eevolution. These naturally 
desired that France should return to the condition in 
which they were the dominant classes. They proposed 
that Agriculture should be the chief interest ; that 
cultivation on a large scale should be restored ; that 
great properties should be reconstituted with. Entail 
and Primogeniture ; that the Clergy should be supported 
by the State; and that the Administrative Centralization 
reorganized by Napoleon, which enabled the Govern- 
ment to control the country, should be abolished. In 
short, they hoped to revive the Feudal System, the sys- 
tem of the Middle Ages, the government of the Aristo- 
cracy, which Kichelieu had suppressed. They were as 
much opposed to an Absolute Monarchy as to an Abso- 
lute Democracy. They always believed that France 
was their heritage, quite forgetting that they had been 
superseded by the Absolute Monarchy, and that both 
had been supplanted by the Revolution. This was the 



144 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Feudal party, which dreamt that ancient France could 
be galvanized and set up again. 

Opposed to it was the party that was born in the seven- 
teenth century, and survived the vicissitudes and horrors 
of the eighteenth century. They denied that the Supreme 
power belonged either to the Aristocracy or the Mon- 
archy ; it was, they contended, the property of the Nation, 
to be used by its agents or delegates for the benefit 
of all. This was the party of Modern France. It repre- 
sented all the new interests that had grown up, and con- 
sisted of the new men that aspired to govern the country. 
It was composed of the parliamentarians, the bankers, 
manufacturers, merchants, physicians, and lawyers ; in 
fact, the descendants of that Middle Class which once 
stood between the Aristocracy and the masses. 

The struggles between these parties, between ancient 
France and modern France, filled up the reign of 
Louis XVIII. The King was a sensible man, with a love 
for belles-lettres, and no taste for politics and its noisy 
jargon. The lessons of his eventful life were not forgot- 
ten. The ancient Monarchy of France in the person of 
his brother had sunk in a sea of blood. An exile and 
wanderer for twenty-three years, he returned to France, 
not to sit on the throne of his ancestors — it had vanished 
— but to play the novel rSle of Constitutional King. 
Either from indifference or prudence, he held aloof 
from the contests that raged around him. He could 
feel no sympathy for a party that sought to resuscitate 
an Aristocracy meant to curb alike the Monarchy and 
the masses. He comprehended, on the other hand, 
the folly of resisting a party that impersonated the 
France of his day. For nearly ten years he held the 
balance evenly between them, choosing as his Minister, 



FRANCE. 145 

at one time the Duke Decazes, the leader of modern 
France, and at the other, M. de Villele, the chief of 
the " Impracticables," as the party of ancient France 
was christened. When dying, he laid his hand on the 
head of his young grand-nephew, the Duke de Bor- 
deaux,* and said, " Let my brother husband tenderly 
the Crown of this child." 

* The Duke de Bordeaux, better known as the Count do Chambord, 
was born in September, 1820, and was grandson of Charles X. His 
fatlier,the Dukede Berry, was assassinated, in February, 1820, as he was 
leaving the Opera-house, by the fanatic Louvel, a saddler, who declared 
his object was to extinguish the elder branch of the Bourbons. 



DOWNFALL OF THE MONARCHY. 

NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Charles X., brother of Louis XVI., and of the last 
King, succeeded to the throne in 1824. Up to this 
time he bore the title of Count d'Artois. He emi- 
grated in 1789, and was active in urging the Foreign 
Powers to invade France and put down the Eevolu- 
tion. He returned in 1814, untaught by the fearful 
events that had occurred, and unconscious of the 
vast moral and material change that had ensued. This 
was exemplified by his reply when asked, on his 
arrival in Paris, if he found any alteration. " Only 
a Frenchman the more," he answered, alluding to 
himself. He was a man of small capacity, and 
great irresolution — ^just the combination to lead to 
a catastrophe. During his brother's reign, he identi- 
fied himself with the reactionary party, and readily 
yielded to the perilous influence of the Clergy. 

He was no sooner in power, than under the counsel of 
his Minister, M. de Villele, he authorized the adoption 
of several indiscreet measures, which soon aroused public 
indignation. Alarmed at the outcry, he called M. de 
Martignac to his side, 1827, and calmed the universal 
dissatisfaction by a wiser policy. Unable, however, to 
resist the pressure of insidious advisers, and still pro- 
foundly ignorant of public sentiment in France, he 



FRANCE. 147 

made, in 1829, M. de Polignac his Minister, and re- 
solved on a course of policy utterly opposed to the 
views and interests of the great majority of the Nation. 
The protests of the Opposition in the Chamber of De- 
puties were loud and threatening. They voted an 
Address to the King by a majority of 221. declaring 
that the " political views of the Grovernment did not 
concur with the \fishes of the people." In spite of 
this warning, and the many symptoms of an impending 
storm, the King persisted in extreme measures ; and 
in July, 1830, he issued the famous Ordinances dissolv- 
ing the Chamber of Deputies, suspending the Liberty of 
the Press, and changing the Electoral System. In a 
word, the Constitution of 1814 was glaringly violated. 

Two days after, July 27, an Insurrection broke out in 
the streets of Paris, which in three days ended in the 
Abdication of Charles X., in favor of his grandson, the 
Duke de Bordeaux. The infatuated King again re- 
sumed the road to exile. He died at Goritz, in 1836, 
in his 80th year.* 

Thus fell to the ground, where it is destined to lie, 
the Monarchy of the Middle Ages, impersonated in 
the elder branch of the Bourbons. It was put on its 
legs a second time by the Allied Armies in 1814, not so 
much perhaps out of respect for the " Divine Right " 
it represented, but that there was no other material out 
of which a Government could be manufactured. The 
Revolution had left neither a man nor a principle. The 
Empire naturally disappeared with Napoleon, its foun- 
der. There was nothing, therefore, but the old Mon- 
archy to resuscitate, and an effort was made to adapt 

* At the very close of the reign of Charles X., July, 1830, Algiers was 
annexed to France. 

K 2 



148 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

it to the altered circumstances by yoking it to a Consti- 
tution. Its fate is recorded. 

The Grovernment which succeeded that of Charles X. 
had for its chief exponent his cousin Louis-Philippe, 
of the house of Orleans — the younger branch of the 
Bourbon family. He was familiarly dubbed at the 
time " The Citizen King," to show that he was the 
representative of modern France. 

I shall reserve my comments on this reign, of which 
I was an eye-witness, until I discuss it in the " History 
of my Times." 



ENGLAND. 



ENGLAND. 

SAXON EPOCH. 

A GLANCE, however rapid, at English history before the 
Middle Ages will be interesting. The islands of Britain 
and Ireland were first occupied by emigrants from Gaul 
— afterwards France — of the Celtic race.* Aristotle 
alluded to these islands some 350 years before Christ ; 
yet little is known of them until the invasion of Britain 
by Julius Caesar in the first century. Ireland never fell 
under the Eoman, or Saxon yoke, and remained purely 
Celtic for several centuries : a fact which explains, in 
some degree, the dissimilarity of character between the 
Irish and the English. The Eomans remained masters of 
Britain for four centuries, and did not retire until the 
fifth century, when the invasion of Italy by the Goths 
imperatively recalled them home. The Britons then 
became the prey of various German tribes, who con- 
quered different parts of the island, and dispossessed 
the native Chiefs or Kings. 

With the success of these tribes the period known as 
the Saxon Heptarchy begins. Under Egbert, King of 
Wessex — 827 — the Seven Kingdoms of the Heptarchy 
were united under one Government, and the country 
then took the name of England. The institutions, 

* Gaul, Italy, and Spain were first occupied by roving tribes of Celts, 
supposed to have come from India. 



I 52 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

laws, and language of the Saxons superseded those of 
the ancient Britons, who became the slaves of the new 
conquerors. The Kingdom was divided by degrees into 
shires or counties, each shire having its law courts. 
There were numerous cities and burghs. The Church 
had its hierarchy of Archbishops, Bishops, and inferior 
Clergy; cathedrals and monasteries were built and 
endowed ; and poetry and literature were cultivated. 
The language spoken and written was Saxon. The 
Saxons held England for over four centuries, with the 
exception of an interval of twenty-seven years, when the 
Danes obtained possession of the country, and estab- 
lished a dynasty. In 1041, the Crown was restored to 
the Saxons. 

It is curious to observe in some of the institutions of 
the Saxons the germs of wliat is now existing. For 
instance, the Government, though Monarchical, was 
limited by an Assembly — The Witan — composed of 
Priests and Nobles. " The pervading principle," says 
Rowland, " of the Saxon government was aristocracy." 
But what is more striking is, that the Saxons were 
divided into three ranks — the Nobles, the Freemen, and 
the Slaves. The Nobles and Freemen were Saxon, 
whilst the slaves were the descendants of the conquered 
Britons. This free, or Middle Class was engaged in 
agriculture, or when living in towns, in various handi- 
crafts. The slaves were employed either on the land 
or in the houses of their masters. The freeman of the 
Middle Class could by successful industry raise himself 
to the position of a Thane,* just as at the present day 

* The Thanes were divided into King's Thanes, or Nobility ; and the 
middle and inferior Thanes, or Gentry. If a freeman became owner of a 
certain quantity of land, or made three voyages in a ship, and with a 
cargo of his own, he was made a Thane. 



ENGLAND. " 1 53 

the prominent men of the Middle Class are advanced to 
titles and dignities. 

The conspicuous feature of this social organization 
was the free Middle Class ; and it is to this class, as we 
shall see, the masses of the world owe their enfranchise- 
ment. No such class existed elsewhere in Europe, or 
had ever existed before. The Franks, like the Saxons, 
were of German origin ; like the Saxons, they enslaved 
the inhabitants of the conquered country, but then they 
established the P^eudal System ; under which two classes 
of society only existed, the Nobility and the slaves. 
The Saxons, on the contrary, who conquered Britain 
and enslaved the inhabitants about the same period, 
broke up into the three classes mentioned, because 
the Feudal System was unknown there. We shall see 
its effect when introduced by the French. It is true 
the Saxon Middle Class possessed no political or muni- 
cipal privileges till the thirteenth century; whereas the 
French corriTnunes or Middle Class which had sprung 
up, as already described, from the abuses of the Feudal 
System, were endowed with Municipal liberty in the 
twelfth century. There was this immense distinction, 
however, in the two cases. The Saxon Middle Class, 
which existed since the conquest of Britain, say in the 
sixth century, had always been Freemen, and were con- 
sequently inspired by a spirit of independence which 
could never be broken, and which was the parent, 
finally, of the Independence of the United States and 
of the French Eevolution in 1789. The French Middle 
Class, on the other hand, emerged from bands of fugi- 
tive serfs accustomed to obedience and submission ; and 
therefore, though enfranchised by one King, was easily 

7* 



154 ^^ ^^^ TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

deprived of self-government by another at a later period, 
as we have already seen. 

The last Saxon King was Harold II., who usurped 
the throne on the death of Edward the Confessor, his 
brother-in-law, in 1066. 



THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

MIDDLE AGES. 

The cursory review of England during the Saxon 
Eegime will convey some general idea of the civilization 
of the countiy prior to the Norman Conquest. In 
October of 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, landed 
at Hastings with 60,000 men, claiming the English 
throne. A battle ensued in which Harold was slain, 
and the Saxon dynasty overthrown. Many of the Saxon 
Nobility were killed, many emigrated, and others 
accepted the new King. 

This event was the grandest in its results that history 
records, for it led ultimately to the birth of civil and reli- 
gious liberty. The Norman Conquest introduced a new 
people and a new language, but more important still, 
a new political organization into England. The Duke 
of Normandy imported his Voutumie de Normandie^ 
as it was then called — the Custom of Normandy — 
which was nothing else than the Feudal System as then 
established in France : and thus the Feudal System was 
transplanted to English soil, with its Military service, 
its Primogeniture, Knighthood, Armorial bearings, and 
all its " pomp, pride, and circumstance." 

William divided the lands of England among his 
captains, as the King of the Franks had done with 
Gaul. The conquered country was split up into 



156 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Baronies, with a Norman Chief as the Lord of each. 
The share given was proportioned to the rank of the 
Lord, the number of his vassals, and the supplies fur- 
nished to the expedition. For himself the Conqueror 
appropriated fourteen hundred and twenty-two large 
estates in different shires, besides other lands and farms 
recently the property of the Saxon Kings and the 
great Thanes. 

The foundations of the Feudal System were thus 
laid, but William insisted that it should be acknow- 
ledged and consecrated by a solemn ceremony. 
Accordingly, all the great landowners met the King at 
Sarum, 1085, went on their knees one after the 
other before him, and declared that they had received 
their lands from him as their Lord Paramount. In 
Norman-French they thus spoke : — " I become your 
man from this day forward, of life and limb, and of 
earthly worship ; and unto you shall be true and faith- 
ful, and bear to you faith for the tenements I -claim to 
hold of you." The King then kissed each liegeman on 
the cheek, and the Oath of Fealty was taken : — " Hear 
this, my lord ; I will be foithful and loyal to you, and 
will bear to you faith for the tenements I hold of you, 
and will loyally perform the customs and services which 
I owe to you, at the times assigned. So help me God 
and his Saints." 

This was not all an idle form, for every landowner 
was bovmd under it to furnish the King a soldier fully 
accoutred for war for every twenty pounds a year he 
received from his land. In this way the King raised 
troops, before those standing armies appeared which in 
other countries ultimately broke up the Feudal System. 
The Conqueror took care, like Charlemagne and Hugh 



ENGLAND. 157- 

Capet, to conciliate the Clergy by bestowing large 
quantities of land on the Church ; but under the 
Feudal System no immunity was granted to ecclesiastical 
property. Every Bishop and Abbot was called on to 
provide soldiers for every twenty pounds of revenue. 
We shall see how little the Saxon Clergy liked this 
feudal usage, and how gladly they always united with 
the Barons to diminish the Eoyal Power. It will also 
be seen how much English history differed from French, 
although the Feudal System prevailed in both countries 
during the Middle Ages. In England the Priests and 
Nobles worked cordially against the King, which in 
France was not the case. In England the Middle Class 
saw their interest was to sustain the Barons ; but in 
France they allowed themselves to be utilized by the 
King against the Aristocracy until the rise of a standing 
army destroyed their importance as allies. In England 
the Barons and the citizens shrewdly opposed any 
standing army. King John, it will be remarked, was 
obliged to employ foreign troops during the struggle 
for Magna Charta. 

The Conqueror, as King of England, took a different 
view of Feudalism from that he took as Duke of Nor- 
mandy. In France, as a feudal Lord, he sought to in- 
crease his power and to weaken the Monarchy ; but in 
England, as King, he curtailed the influence of the 
Barons and augmented his own authority. This was 
not Feudalism as the French Lords understood it, and 
they would have at once taken up arms against the 
King, as had been the practice for so many centuries 
in France, but that serious obstacles compelled them 
for a time to submit. 

One of these obstacles was William himself. His 



158 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

great capacity and resolute character awed them. It 
may be seen from the following sketch he was a dan- 
gerous opponent. " We see him bold and ambitious, 
stern without anger, and merciful without kindness, 
choosing sternness or mercy as best served his purpose ; 
thinking only of what would retard or promote his 
success, and careless whether he used sword or poison 
to remove an enemy, provided that the enemy was 
removed. At the same time he was influenced by the 
improving spirit of the time, and had an honest and 
generous purpose in favour of right and order, which 
must not be overlooked." 

To this graphic portrait I will add, as a further illus- 
tration of the Conqueror's character, a story told in 
the words of an old chronicle of the time, and lately 
repeated in a book of M. Gruizot. It was related that 
" Baldwin, Count of Flanders, had a daughter named 
Matilda, who was beautiful, learned, pious, a model of 
virtue and modesty. William demanded her in mar- 
riage, but Matilda answered, 'I would rather be a veiled 
nun than given in marriage to a bastard.' Duke 
William heard what answer the damsel had made, and 
not long after he took certain of his followers and 
went privily to Lille, where the Count of Flanders 
abode with his wife and the damsel. He entered the 
hall and passed on as if he had business, and so reached 
the chamber of the Countess ; and there he found the 
damsel. Count Baldwin's daughter. Her he seized by 
the hair and dragged round the room, and spurned her 
with his foot, and did beat lier. Then he went forth 
from the cliamber, leapt upon his horse, which one held 
for him at the hall, set spurs to it, and went on his 



ENGLAND. 1 59 

way. At this deed was Count Baldwin wroth ; and 
matters remained thus for a time, and after that 
Duke William sent once again to speak with Count 
Baldwin concerning the marriage. So the Count told 
the damsel his daughter, and she replied that it 
pleased her well. And then with much joy they twain 
were wedded. After all these matters were ended, 
Count Baldwin did laugh, and he asked his daughter 
why she had at last lightly consented to a marriage 
which at first she had so cruelly refused ; and she made 
answer that she did not then know the Duke as she did 
afterwards, ' For,' said she, ' if he had not great heart 
and high courage, he would never have been so bold as 
dare to beat me in my father's chamber.' " 

Evidently, William was not a man to be tampered with, 
and his Barons carefully avoided a collision. There was 
another obstacle, however, to quarrelling with the Crown 
in England. The French Lords found their new vassals, 
the Saxons, a very different race from their impetuous 
countrymen.* They were a sober, patient people, who 
had already acquired a taste for liberty from the early 
Charters of their Kings, and from the " good old laws " 
of Edward the Confessor, 1041 to 1066.t They were, 
besides, sullen and hostile to their new masters. The 
Barons found themselves helpless between an adverse 
population and an Arbitrary Monarchy, and at once 
saw that the Feudal System as established in France was 

* Under the Saxon Grovernment, "the people," says Rowland, "had no 
direct political power; but they were not rigidly excluded from it. A 
large proportion of them were freemen, and there were various methods 
l)y which even the serfs could obtain their freedom." 

t These laws were favorable to the people, and originated with 
King Canute, 1017, and were confirmed by Edward the Confessor. 



l60 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

not possible in England. In France, the people were 
born the vassals of one feudal Lord or another, and 
they had had no idea of any other existence. This 
was Feudalism, not only in France, but in Italy and 
Germany ; for no Middle Class of freemen had grown 
up in these countries before Feudality arose, as in 
England. 

The Norman Lords, under these circumstances, per- 
ceived that they had little chance of dictating to the 
Monarchy in England, and exercising the license which 
they enjoyed at home, unless they could find vassals 
to carry out their plans. They saw the only way to en- 
list support was to divide the spoils of victory. With 
these views, they agreed to share with their Saxon ad- 
herents the power that was wrested from the Monarchy. 
The conquered people, on their part, accepted readily an 
alliance with their Norman Lords, but they were more 
intent on gaining liberty for themselves than in building 
up the supremacy of the Aristocracy, as the sequel will 
show. 

In 1087, the Conqueror died,* and his second son, Wil- 
liam Eufus, succeeded. We hear little of the Barons 
during his reign. 

In 1100, Henry L, third son of the Conqueror, as- 
cended the throne. He was at once involved in a war 
with his brother Eobert, and afterwards with the King 
of France. To secure the support of the Barons, who 
were rapidly becoming formidable, he was obliged to 
grant them concessions at the expense of his own power. 

* One of the last acts of his reign was to order a Survey of all the 
landed property in England, which was made and recorded in " Domes- 
day Book," and is still preserved in a perfect state. No less than 25,000 
serfs, or one-eleventh of the population of England in 1087, are registered 
in *' Domesday Book." 



ENGLAND. l6l 

This was the first advantage, the first triumph of the 
Aristocracy over the Monarchy.* 

Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I. succeeded ; but 
in their reigns there was no trouble with the Barons, 
who were quietly preparing for a decisive struggle. 
Henry II. had a violent contest with the Church, in 
which he was completely subdued.f The rule of these 
three Kings covered 64 years. 

When John ascended the throne in 1199, over a 
hundred years had elapsed since the Conquest ; and 
by this time the Saxons and the Normans, or the Free- 
men and the Barons, were in complete accord, and ready 
for action. Their motives were identical. J Each aimed 
at reducing the arbitrary power of the Monarchy, and 
both were resolved to appropriate a share of the politi- 
cal booty they meant to extort from the King. 

* A grand event distinguished this reign. Trial by jury, never known 
before, was organized. For the first time also, nobles and commoners, 
clergy and laity, were taxed alike ; and thus was established the prin- 
ciple of equal taxation. 

t Henry II. attempted to reduce the power of the clergy in England, 
and issued decrees called the " Constitutions of Clarendon "—so named 
after his palace at Clarendon — which limited the jurisdiction of the 
ecclesiastical tribunals. This led to a revolt of the clergy against the 
king, in the course of which Thomas a Beckett, the Archbishop, was 
assassinated in the Cathedral of Canterbury. Henry was excommuni- 
cated by the Pope, and to conciliate the Church he revoked the " Con- 
stitutions of Clarendon," and did penance at the tomb of Thomas a 
Beckett. Abandoned and persecuted by all, he died in 1189. 

I By this time, say various authorities, a new language began — 
Saxon blended with Norman. Also, all distinctive peculiarities of Saxon 
and Norman attire had disappeared. The process of the amalgamation 
01 the two races was nearly complete. 



FEUDALITY VANQUISHES THE MONARCHY. 

MIDDLE AGES. 

John began by usurping the throne, and plotting the 
murder of his nephew Arthur, the legal heir. He next 
engaged in a quarrel with the Pope, which led to his 
excommunication. To escape from this, he agreed to 
hold his Crown as the vassal of the Holy See, and to pay 
an annual subsidy. In a war with the French King, 
he lost Normandy, and all his fiefs in France. These 
and other acts made him odious. 

The Barons saw that the opportunity for striking a 
blow at the Monarchy had arrived, and the Yeomen 
readily joined them. Their co-operation led to the 
birth of popular freedom in the shape of the Magna 
Charta. This is the first time in the world's history that 
the Supreme Power ever acknowledged " the rights and 
liberties of the people." This, too, is the first time 
that the Aristocracy and People ever united for such 
a purpose, and it could not have been accomplished 
without this co-operation. 

It was in the Easter of 1215 that the Barons, followed 
by their vassals, appeared before Oxford, where John 
was then residing, resolved to wrest from him certain 
concessions or " liberties." Alarmed at their approach, the 
King sent to know what were the liberties they wanted. 
In reply, the confederates sent a list of their demands, 



ENGLAND. 1 63 

which threw his Majesty into a rage, and provoked the 
exclamation, " And why do they not demand my crown 
also ? By Grod's teeth, I will not grant them liberties 
that will make me a slave." The Barons declared war 
at once : but the King, startled at this decisive measure, 
proposed a Conference, which finally took place, in the 
"meadow called Eunimede," on the 15th of June. 

The Church united with the Barons and Freemen on 
this occasion, and Langton, the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, was one of the chief instigators of the movement. 
In consequence the Church obtained its share of the 
concessions that were made. 

After the Church and the Barons came the turn of 
the Middle Class, or Freemen. Among the various 
clauses that were meant to protect them, there is one 
worth citing, as showing the iniquities then prevalent. 
Clause 38 says : " There shall be one measure of wine 
and one of ale through our whole realm, and one 
measure of com, that is to say, the London quarter, 
and the weights shall be as the measures." This proves 
that it was common at that day to use false weights 
and measures, and that no law prevented it. There 
was another clause, however, worth all the rest, and 
that contained a pledge that had never before been 
uttered. This was the first time, as just stated, that a 
Government entered into a compact with the People, 
and bound itself to renounce tyranny and oppression. 
Clause 44 runs thus : " We will sell to no man; we ivill 
not deny or delay to any man right or justiceJ^ 

Strange that tliousands of years had elapsed before such 
a bulwark against despotism was raised ; strange that a 
combination of French Lords and Saxon Yeomen should 
have extorted from arbitrary power a confession of its 



104 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

wrongs ; strange that but for these memorable words 
such a Grovernment as that of the United States might 
never have existed. 

English lawyers and historians are agreed in forming 
the highest estimate of this Charter. Sir Edward Coke 
spoke of it, in 1 600, as " the foundation of all the fun- 
damental laws of the realm." Hallam says, " It is the 
keystone of English liberty." Sir James Mackintosh 
remarks, " It contains maxims of just government 
applicable to all places and times, of which it is hardly 
possible to overrate the importance." 

The liberties they obtained, however, were soon 
threatened. In spite of his solemn covenant, the King 
never intended to carry out the Charter ; and no sooner 
had the Barons withdrawn, than he applied to the Pope 
for assistance. His Holiness issued a Bull forbidding 
the Barons to exact the observance of the Charter, and 
dispensing the King from paying any regard to it. 
John hired foreign troops and renewed the civil war. 
The Barons called on the son of the French King — 
afterwards Louis VIII. — to come and assume the Eng- 
lish Crown ; but in the midst of these commotions John 
died, 1216. 

His son, Henry III., was no better disposed than his 
father to respect the Charter, and he violated it so often 
that the Barons had recourse to various expedients to en- 
force him to observe it. On one occasion they prepared 
an imposing ceremonial in the great Hall of Westminster, 
1254, at which the King was present with his Barons 
and Prelates — the latter in full pontificals, and car- 
rying burning tapers in their hands. The Magna Charta 
was then read before the Assembly, and the Ecclesiastics 
pronounced the sentence of excommunication against 



ENGLAND. 1 65 

every one who should hereafter violate this fundamental 
Law. Then, throwing their torches on the ground, they 
exclaimed, " May the soul of every one who incurs this 
sentence so stink and corrupt in hell !" The King added 
— " So help me Grod, I will keep all these Articles in- 
violate, as I am a man, as I am a Christian, as I am a 
Knight, as I am a King, crowned and anointed!" The 
Pope, however, as in King John's time, stepped in with 
a dispensation, and relieved Henry of his oath. 

Finally, the Barons resolved on a more decided 
course ; and, under the lead of Simon de Montfort,* 
Earl of Leicester, induced the King to call a Great 
Council at Oxford, 1258, which consisted of Prelates 
and Nobles. These came to the Assembly attended by 
their vassals, and, taking the King prisoner, forced him 
to sign some new Laws known as the " Provisions of 
Oxford." 

These Laws, which the King again swore to observe, put 
the Government under the direct control of 24 Barons, 
selected for the purpose. Henry once more applied to 
the Pope, who in a new Bull denounced the " Provi- 
sions of Oxford," and relieved the King of all obligation. 
A war then ensued between the Barons and the King, 
who was routed at the battle of Lewes, 1264, and taken 
prisoner. His son Edward was also detained in Dover 
Castle as a hostage. 

This led to another great event, only second in im- 



* Simon de Montfort was son of Count de Montfort, the Crusader, and 
was a Frenchman. He inherited, by his father's marriage with an 
Englishwoman, large possessions in England, and came to settle there 
in 1236. He was welcomed by Henry III., who gave him his sister's 
hand, and made him Governor of Grascony. He was afterwards, how- 
ever, recalled in disgrace, and readily joined the conspiracy of the 
Barons against the King. 



l66 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

portance to Magna Charta^ namely, the Eepresentation 
of the People, by the creation of a House of Com- 
mons. Up to this period, both before and after the 
Christian era, there had been numerous Assemblies 
regulating and controlling the destiny of nations, but 
they had always consisted of the Upper Classes only. 
This was the first time the phenomenon occurred that 
any class below the Nobility and the Clergy was called 
on to send its Delegates to take part in the creation of 
laws for the common government of all. 

At this epoch in England the King engrossed the 
whole power. The Executive control was entirely in 
his hands, and he was the author of all the laws, asking 
when he chose the mere formal assent of his Prelates 
and Barons. Furthermore, the King held possession of 
the Kingdom as he might of a private estate. Not only 
did he derive a large revenue from the Eoyal domains, 
but, by the feudal laws, the Barons held their lands as 
if from his bounty, and paid him a large income. The 
King also levied tolls on the Eoyal towns, or received 
in place of tolls a fee-farm rent. The merchandise 
imported and exported also paid tribute to him ; and 
he had a right to the prisage of wine — two casks out 
of every ship. The money so derived he spent as he 
pleased : in the expenses of his Government ; in his 
own household ; in peace or in war. When this revenue 
was sufficient, the people were spared, and were con- 
tent; but when the King required larger subsidies from 
bis subjects, he assembled his great Council of Priests 
and Nobles, and called for their co-operation. 

The vast importance of the great change I am 
speaking of may be estimated when it is seen that it 
swept away this irresponsible despotism, and wrested 



ENGLAND. 1 6/ 

the riofht of taxation from the hands of the Kinof and 
the Aristocracy, to deposit it in those of the Common- 
alty, where it has since remained. 

The capture of Henry III. at Lewes, as related, vested 
the Sovereign power in the Barons, and they decided 
promptly to call on the freemen of the Middle Class 
to co-operate with them in curbing the tyranny of the 
Monarchy. Evidently this was the surest means to 
strengthen themselves and weaken the King. Accor- 
dingly they authorized their leader, Simon de Mont- 
fort, to summon, in the name of the captive King, 
a Great Council or Parliament to meet in London, 
January 20th, 1265. 

The Prelates and Barons were summoned by writs 
in the King's name, as were also two Knights from each 
county. The records show that 23 lay Lords and 122 
Ecclesiastics, including Abbots, Priors, and Deans, at- 
tended the Assembly. 

It also appears by the record that writs were sent 
to all the cities and boroughs of England, commanding 
them to send "two of the more discrete, lawful, and 
honest of their citizens and burgesses" to the Parliament. 

This beyond all question is the first appearance of 
the People on the political stage. Hallam remarks, 
"After long controversy, almost all judicious enquirers 
seem to have acquiesced in admitting that this is the 
origin of pojpular representation,^'' In the writs ad- 
dressed to the " citizens and burgesses " the purpose of 
their attendance was stated to be "to treat on the 
King's affairs, with the King, Prelates, and Magnates." 

Not long after Prince Edward escaped from Dover 
Castle, and took up arms against the Barons, who were 
beaten at the battle of Evesham, August, 1265, and 



1 68 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT, 

Montfort was slain. The King was released from bon- 
dage, and no more was heard of popular representation 
during bis reign. 

Edward I. succeeded Henry III. in 1272. He was 
constantly engaged in war. He conquered Wales, and 
annexed it. He bad also frequent conflicts witb Scot- 
land. To obtain the subsidies demanded, be found it 
necessary at last to adopt the example set by the 
Barons ; and in the twenty-third year of bis reign be, 
too, summoned the " citizens and burgesses " to Parlia- 
ment. What the father of Edward regarded as an 
usurpation was now by the act of Edward himself 
established as the law of the land. Only two years 
later he consented to a Statute which restricted the 
power of the King over taxation. He bound himself 
to the Lords spiritual and temporal and to the Common- 
alty of the land that " for no business he would take 
any aids, tasks, nor prises, but by the coramon assent 
of the realm, and for the common profit thereof." 

In this way and at this early date, nearly 600 years 
ago, was the foundation laid in England for the 
redemption of the masses, the world over, from the 
bondage and tyranny they had endiu-ed, utterly help- 
less, for thousands of years.* 

In the reign of Edward II., who succeeded in 1307, 
the power of the Barons and the Freemen gradually 
increased. 

In the second year of this Monarch's reign a Petition 
of the Commons appears on the EoUs of Parliament. 
It is couched in humble terms, but complaints at that 

* Rowland remarks that it required 85 years to establish the Magna 
Ckarta as settled law, from its grant by King John down to the 28th 
year of the reigu of Edward I. 



ENGLAND. 1 69 

day were bold innovations. It ran thus : — " The good 
people of the kingdom, who are come hither to Parlia- 
ment, pray our Lord the King, that he will, if it please 
him, have regard to his poor subjects, who are much 
aggrieved, by reason that they are not governed as 
they should be, especially as to the articles of the 
Great Charter ; and for this, if it please him, they 
pray remedy." The grievances are then enumerated : 
" that the King's purveyors seize great quantities of 
victuals without payment ; that new customs (duties) 
are set on wines, clothing, and other imports ; that the 
collectors of the King's dues in 'towns and fairs take 
more than is lawful ; that men are delayed in civil suits 
by writs of protection ; that felons escape from punish- 
ment by procuring charters of pardon." In reply to 
this petition, which was written in Norman-French, 
the King promised redress ; and, in return for this 
promise, the Commons granted him a subsidy of a 
twenty-fifth of their movables. This grant was made 
by them alone, apart from the Barons, and to affect 
only the property of their own order, which was a 
novelty of considerable importance. 

Edward II. was a . debauchee, and completely under 
the control of his favorites. Great abuses were the 
result of the ill conduct of the King. The Barons again 
confederated, and forced him to sign new Ordinances 
curtailing his prerogatives. Among them was one by 
which the King bound himself " to hold a Parliament 
once in every year, or twice if there should be need." 
Another Ordinance was, that "money should not be 
altered without great occasion, and then by the com- 
mon advice of the Baronage in Parliament." Ten years 
afterwards the King raised an army, and defeated the 

8 



1 70 4N HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

Barons at Burton. The Ordinances were repealed, and 
the King reasserted his prerogatives — at the same time, 
however, acknowledging the joint authority of the 
Lords and Commons. Five years later Edward was 
again assailed by the Barons. The Earl of Mortimer 
landed at Harwich with some Flemish troops, and, 
being joined by numerous Lords with their vassals, 
raised the standard of rebellion. The King fled to 
Wales, but was captured. Ke was then formally de- 
posed by Parliament for various gross abuses duly set 
forth, and his son Edward III. was proclaimed King.* 
In thus driving Edward 11. from the throne, and giving 
to this action legal form, the Parliament added to its 
prestige. 

In the reign of Edward III., the power of the Com- 
mons made gradual advances. They were now regu- 
larly appealed to when money was required, and they 
never failed to demand some new concessions before 
granting it. At a Parliament in the thirteenth year of 
this reign they said, " They would vouch to the King 
2,500 sacks of wool whereon to borrow money imme- 
diately, but that if the conditions they had proposed 
were agreed to by the King they would raise the grant 
to 30,000 sacks." 

In this reign the Commons began to sit separately 
from the Lords in the Chapter House of Westminster 
Abbey. It was also in this reign that the Commons 

* The xinforttinate King "was impriponed by the Earl of Mortimer, 
and cruelly murdered, a hot iron being thrust into his entrails. Three 
years later, 1330. his son E.lwarl began to govern, and he immediately 
hanged Mortimer and imprisoned his mother, who was suspected of 
conniving at the assassination. During the reign of Edward II. the 
victory of Bannockburn was won by the Scots under Robert Bruce, 
which heightened the unpopularity of the King. Edward II. was the 
first to bear the title of Prince of Wales. 



ENGLAND. I7I 

exercised for the first time the power of Impeachment. 
Articles were framed against Richard Lyon, a merchant 
of London, and the Lord Latimer, one of the King's 
Councillors, for certain abuses, one of which was 
bargaining with the King's creditors, for their claims, 
and procuring the King to pay them in full. Lyon 
and Latimer were imprisoned, and suffered forfeiture 
of their goods and chattels. In the fifty-first year of 
this reign we find the first mention by name of a 
Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Thomas 
Hungerford, Knight. 

It was Edward III. who founded the Order of the 
Garter — 1349 — and built Windsor Castle. He also 
ordered, with the assent of the Lords and Commons, 
that the statutes and law proceedings should be in 
English, instead of French, as hitherto. 

Richard II. succeeded to the throne in 1377. 

During his minority an Insurrection of the villeins 
or serfs occurred in the neighbourhood of London. 
Their leader was Wat, a tyler by trade, who killed a 
collector of taxes, and raised a formidable revolt. The 
insurgents marched on London, and before they could 
be checked great damage was done. The palace of 
the Archbishop of Canterbury was burnt, and the Arch- 
bishop murdered. Other palaces were destroyed, and 
besides the Archbishop, several persons of distinction 
were killed. To conciliate the rebels, the young King 
offered them freedom. A parley took place, at which 
the King was present. Wat, however, having been 
guilty of some act of insolence, was killed on the spot 
by the Lord Mayor. A band of armed men overawed 
the rioters, and compelled them quietly to disperse. So 
ended the Rebellion. 



172 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

The Parliament unanimously demanded the recall of 
the manumissions granted by the King under the in- 
fluence of the tumult, but the Commons blamed him 
as the chief cause of it.* They closed their remon- 
strance in these words : — "To speak the real truth, 
these injuries lately done to the poorer Commons, more 
than they ever suffered before, caused them to rise, 
and commit the mischief done in their late riot." 

Id the tenth year of this reign, the Commons im- 
peached the Lord Chancellor. The King resented this 
act, but the Commons were not intimidated. They 
resolved, " they neither could, nor by any means would, 
pioceed in any business of Parliament, or despatch so 
much as the least article of it, till the King could come 
and show himself in person amongst them, and remove 
Michael de la Pole from his office." This demand was 
finally complied with. 

The King's conduct, however, continuing to grow 
worse, the Parliament determined to depose him, and 
his cousin the Duke of Lancaster was raised to the 
throne as Henry IV. The Commons impeached several 
other persons during this Parliament, a proof of their 
growing importance. Richard was adjudged to per- 
petual imprisonment, and it is supposed he was assas- 
sinated by order of his successor. 

We find in the ninth year of Henry's reign a remark- 
able proof of the extent to which the Commons had 
consolidated their power. The King had demanded a 



* A record of the time states that " from this time we find little more 
of the villeins. Their manumission required neither letters patent of 
the King nor Act of Parliament. The lords relaxed, and gradually 
abandoned, their right to their services ; and when that was given up, 
the villeins were not distinguished in condition from their free fellow - 
Bubjeets." 



ENGLAND. 1 73 

subsidy of the Lords in Parliament. The Lords having 
complied, the King desired the Commons to follow the 
example of the Upper House. The Commons declared 
this was " a derogation of their liberties ;" and it was 
finally settled that " it should be lawful for the Lords 
to commune amongst themselves of the state of the 
realm, and that it should be lawful for the Commons 
on their part to commune together, and that no report 
should be made to the King of any subsidy by the 
Commons granted, and by the Lords assented to, before 
the Lords and Commons should be of one assent and 
accord in such matters, and then in manner and form 
as had been accustomed, that is by the mouth of the 
Speaker of the Commons." This was a great triumph 
for both Houses of Parliament, for it established the 
independent action of each, whilst it required the as- 
sent of both " to any report to the King," that is, to any 
law. " The two Houses of Parliament," observes Row- 
land, " thus acquired the constitutional action that now 
exists. In other words, the Regal or Executive func- 
tions ot the government were separated from the Le- 
glslative ; placing the latter in two distinct Houses, re- 
presenting the aristocratic and democratic classes, with 
definite although similar functions, with separate power 
of deliberation, and with separate wills ; but requiring 
joint concurrence in any measure that should be pre- 
sented to the King, and his assent to it before it became 
a law." 

It is assuredly remarkable that Constitutional Govern- 
ment should have made such progress as this in Eng- 
land in 1407. What a contrast to the condition of 
France and the rest of Europe at this time, which were 
wholly under the sway of force, and where such phrases 



1 74 ^ ^ ^^^ TORICAL RE TROSPE C T. 

as "popular liberty," and "constitutional rights and 
usages," would have been unintelligible ! 

Henry V. succeeded his father in 1413, and suddenly 
forsook the dissolute ways to which he had abandoned 
himself while a Prince. 

Seeing that France was a prey to a civil war between 
two Aristocratic factions contending for power, he de- 
clared war against her, won the battle of Agincourt, and 
finally became the Eegent, after conquering nearly the 
whole of France. 

Amid the din of war, little is heard of Parliament. 
In the second year of this reigii, however, the House of 
Commons protested against statutes passed without 
their assent, "considering," as their Petition to the 
King declared, " that the Commons of your land, which 
is, and ever hath been, a member of your Parliament, 
are as well assenters as petitioners." The King, in his 
reply, promised that henceforth they should not be 
" bound without their assent." 

Henry VI. was only eight months old when his father 
died, 1422. ' He was proclaimed King of England and 
France under the Eegency of his uncles. 

The war with France was carried on for some years ; 
but peace was finally concluded, and cemented by the 
marriage of Henry with a French Princess, Margaret of 
Anjou. 

The Government of England fell entirely into the 
hands of the Queen, as Henry was weak to imbe- 
cility. 

A few years later, the Earl of Warwick, the " King- 
maker," who was connected with the York branch of 
the Royal Family, endeavored to raise the Duke of 
York to the throne occupied by Henry of the Lancaster 



ENGLAND. 1 75 

branch. The leaders in this civil war, the " War of the 
Two Roses," * were Warwick and Margaret. The Barons 
sided with either faction, and after several battles, 
]Margaret was forced to fly. Henry was imprisoned in 
the Tower, and Edward IV. of the York branch was 
made King, 1461. Warwick afterwards quarrelled with 
Edward, 1469, and espoused the side of Henry, who was 
restored to the throne, Edward being put to flight in 
his turn. In less than a year Edward returned with 
foreign troops, and, joined by his partisans, gave battle 
to Warwick at Barnet, 1471. Warwick was defeated 
and killed ; Henry went back to the Towlr ; IMargaret 
ultimately to France, and their son was assassinated. 
Edward IV. resumed the Crown, and for the rest of his 
reign gave himself up to the control of his favorite, 
Jane Shore. 

Amid all the commotions of this tempestuous reign, 
the art of Printing, invented in Grermany, crept into 
England. Caxton studied it whilst a merchant in 
Holland, and returning home in 1472, published the 
first printed book in 1474. 

Edward V. was proclaimed King on his fother's death, 
1483, but being only 12 years old, his uncle, the Duke 
of Gloucester, assumed the Eegency. Two months 
later he was assassinated with his younger brother, in 
the Tower, by order of Gloucester, who then usurjied 
the throne as Eichard III. Detested for his many 
atrocities, Eicliard was defeated and killed at the battle 
of Bosworth Field, 1485, by the Earl of Eichmond, who 
claimed the throne as descended from the widow of 



* The " War of the Two Roses " was so called fi-om the rival parties 
wearing badges inscribed with a red or a white rose. The Lancaster 
party wore a red, and the York party a white rose. 



176 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Henry V., who married Owen Tudor, a Welsh gen- 
tleman. 

Witli the death of Eichard III. and the accession of 
•the Earl of Eichmond as Henry VII., the civil war be- 
tween the factions of York and Lancaster, which lasted 
some thirty-three years, ended. 



THE MONARCHY AGAIN IN THE ASCENDANT. 

SIXTEENTH CENTURY, 

The growth of Parliament was utterly checked during 
this stormy period. From the date of Magna Charta 
down to Henry VI., the Barons and the Middle Class 
had co-operated to increase their power at the expense 
of the Monarchy. The civil war wholly changed the 
position : for the Barons and Middle Class were divided 
in their support to the rival pretensions of the two Eoyal 
claimants, and so wasted the energies hitherto concen- 
trated on constitutional victories. The result was that 
when Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, mounted the 
throne, 1485, he found it easy to restore the Monarchy 
to the power it enjoyed before the birth of Parliament. 
" The destruction of the nobility in the civil wars," says 
Rowland, " by lowering the power of the aristocracy, 
placed Henry VII. in a condition to acquire and exer- 
cise absolute power." The number of Barons was reduced 
to 40 : the Clergy were thus in a majority in the House 
of Lords, and the Clergy gave their support to the 
King. The Commons, having lost their old leaders, 
made no opposition to Royal authority. The spirit of 
independence formerly displayed by the " citizens and 
burgesses " in Parliament was never visible during the 
period when the Tudor family occupied the throne. 
Henry VII. set the example of keeping the Nobility 
8* HI 



1/8 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

down, and his son Henry VIII., and his grandchild 
Elizabeth, adopted his tactics. The consequence was 
that the Middle Class, deprived of their former chiefs 
in the House of Lords, were completely cowed, and re- 
mained so down to James I., when the Nobility raised 
their heads once more, and renewed their old opposition 
to Absolute Monarchy. Henry VII. was always on his 
guard against the Barons, " for he kept," says Lord 
Bacon, " a strait hand on his nobility, and chose rather 
to advance clergymen and lawyers which were more 
obsequious to him, but had less interest in the people ; 
which made for his absoluteness, but not for his safety. 
For his nobles, though they were loyal and obedient, 
did not co-operate with him, but let every man go his 
own way." This passage from Lord Bacon, who wrote 
in the reign of Elizabeth, shows that the Nobles had 
been so exhausted by the civil wars, that they dared no 
longer stimulate the Middle Class to resist arbitrary 
power. 

During this reign Canada and Nova Scotia were dis- 
covered by the Cabots, who were patronized by the 
King. 

AVe now enter upon the sixteenth century, usually 
considered the close of the Middle Ages ; but it is 
questionable if the epoch known as Modern Times can 
be said to commence before the institutions of the 
Middle Ages were overthrown ; that is, until the year 
1688 in England and the year 1789 in France. 

Be that as it may, the sixteenth century is renowned 
for the successful effort in England to suppress the des- 
potism of the primitive Church. P'or centuries the 
Papacy had controlled the Grovernments of Europe by its 
spiritual power over the masses. Kings and Princes 



ENGLAND. 



179 



struggled against the yoke, but were fain to submit. 
Superstition began to lose ground in the sixteenth 
century ; and Luther dared to protest against the domi- 
nation of the Pope, and to call on the people to read 
the Scriptures and work out their own salvation. The 
invention of Printing now made the Bible accessible to 
all. 

This rebellion against the authority of the Church in 
the sixteenth century in England was the forerunner of 
the rebellion against the authority of the State in the 
seventeenth century. 

To England belongs the glory of having pioneered 
the human race to its emancipation. She became, 
from the accidents of her history, the champion of 
humanity against the arbitrary power which the 
Minority had always, in the name of religion and 
government, exercised over the Majority of men. 
The alliance of her Aristocracy and Middle Class, 
a phenomenon impossible elsewhere, forced Absolute 
Monarchy, in the thirteenth century, to surrender "rightb 
and liberties " never before conceded to mankind. The 
hope of freedom thus engendered led the nation, in the 
sixteenth century, to support a hot-brained King in his 
impassioned assault on the Papal power. Whilst the 
growth of political liberty in England is due to the union 
of her Aristocracy and Freemen, it is equally clear 
that her religious liberty could not have been secured 
if this partnership had not been mifintained. In the 
reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, when the ecclesi- 
astical monopoly was abolished, and free trade in religion 
initiated, it is true the hands of the Aristocracy and 
Middle Class were not so visible as in the political strug- 
gles of previous reigns, bub neither Henry nor Elizabeth 



1 80 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

could have conquered the Pope if the Aristocracy and 
Middle Class had not supported them. The Aristocracy 
may have been divided by religious scruples, as was also 
the Middle Class ; but the majority of both foresaw that 
the downfall of religious despotism would necessarily 
prepare the same fate for political tyranny. 

The Tudor Kings, from Henry VII. to Elizabeth — 1485 
to 1603 — were more absolute than either Norman or 
Plantagenet, and simply because the Aristocracy were 
crippled by the civil wars, and unable, as before, to lead 
the Middle Class against the common enemy. Thus it 
was that during the Tudor dynasty. Parliament seemed to 
abdicate its old role of extending its privileges and cur- 
tailing those of the Monarchy. No doubt the peremp- 
tory commands ol Henry and Elizabeth were cheerfully 
obeyed when Papal domination was in question ; but 
that no opposition was made to the efforts of Philip and 
Mary to restore it, is difficult to explain, save by the 
fear ol an invasion from Spain, whose King was the 
father of Philip. This invasion was actually attempted 
in the reign of Elizabeth. 

These preliminary remarks will awaken attention to 
the great event of the sixteenth century. 

Henry VIII. succeeded to the throne in 1509. He 
married soon after at eighteen, Catherine, daughter of 
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. She had previously 
married his brother Arthur, who died at the end of five 
months. The legality of her second marriage was 
doubted at the time, and at a later period, Henry made 
this uncertainty a pretext for a divorce. 

During the earlier years of his reign he left the 
(rovernment in the hands of Cardinal Wolsey, his 
Minister and favorite. The Clergy sustained by Wolsey 



ENGLAND. 1 8 1 

exercised unbounded power : and hesitated at no abuses 
or exactions. " It was common at this time for persons, 
after committing great crimes," says Eowland, " to go 
into the priesthood to avoid punishment." 

Subsidies for the wars with France were constantly- 
demanded of Parliament, who humbly remonstrated, 
but dared not refuse. The King frequently resorted 
to forced loans, if the grants were inadequate.* 

England at this period was writhing under tlie 
double tyranny of the Church and the Crown. Parlia- 
ment, that had formerly deposed two Kings, and forced 
Henry IV., a hundred years before, to retreat before 
their energetic resistance, was now dumb in the pre- 
sence of the insolent Wolsey, who, as Cardinal and 
Minister, wielded the thunderbolts of both Church and 
State. 

At this dreary moment occurred " one of the greatest 
events in history," as Hallam calls it. The language of 
Bacon is no less striking when he says, referring to 
Henry's first marriage, " The secret providence of Grod 
ordained that marriage to be the occasion of great 
events and changes." After living eighteen years \vith 
Catherine of Arragon, the sensual King conceived a 
violent passion for Anne Boleyn, a Maid of Honor to 
the Queen. Kesolved to divorce Catherine, and marry 
Anne, he applied to Pope Clement, 1527, for a Bull to 
dissolve his first union. Henry had been a zealous son 
of the Church, and had, by writing a book against the 



* The danger of refusing to subscribe to these loans may be seen in 
the fact that an Aldernmn of London, Richard Reed, who would not 
contribute, was sent down to serve as a common soldier on the Scottish 
border, and the General in command there was ordered to employ him 
on the hardest and most perilous duty. 



1 82 AN HISTORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

heresy of Lutlier, secured for himself the title from the 
Pope of " Defender of the Faith." His Holiness was 
anxious to oblige the enamored King, and grant the 
divorce, but Charles V., Emperor of Grermany and 
King of Spain, who was nephew to Catherine, forbade 
him to do so. 

With the Pope's consent, however, a trial for divorce 
beoan in London at the Black Friars' Convent, 1529, 
before the Legates of the Pope, Cardinals Campeggio 
and Wolsey. Catherine appeared in person, denied the 
jurisdiction of the Court, and appealed to Eome. After 
sundry delays the Court broke up, by order of the Pope, 
without pronouncing a divorce. Wolsey was disgraced 
for this failure, and stript of his honors and wealth. 

Thomas Cranmer, a Professor of Theology in Cambridge 
University, sustained the divorce, and suggested to the 
King to ask the opinion of the Universities of Europe, 
on the question whether a marriage with a brother's 
widow were lawful. This was done, and the Universities, 
including those of Oxford and Cambridge, supported 
the King. Cranmer was sent to Eome, where several 
of Henry's Ambassadors had already gone, to obtain if 
possible the coveted Bull for the divorce. 

Irritated at the Pope's indecision, Henry summoned 
a Parliament, 1529, after an interval of seven years, to 
give legal expression to his anger. The House of 
Commons, eager to avenge itself on the Clergy, showed 
great readiness to carry out the King's purpose. They 
sent a Petition to the King, reflecting severely on 
the " vices and corruptions of the clergy," adding 
this singular phrase : " which were believed to flow 
from men who had Luther's doctrines in their hearts." 
This is a proof how little the Eeformation was fore- 






ENGLAND. 1 83 

seen or meditated by Parliament or the King. To 
alarm the Pope, Henry had three Statutes passed in this 
Parliament, curtailing the privileges of the Clergy. 

No attack was yet made on the authority of the 
Pope. In the Parliament of 1531, as a new menace, a 
Law was enacted depriving the Pope of his fees for the 
consecration of English Bishops ; and it was stated in 
the preamble that "£160,000 had passed in this way 
out of the realm since the second year of Henry VII." 

As His Holiness still procrastinated, the Parliament 
of 1532, at the desire of the King, aimed a serious 
blow at the Papacy, by a Statute " For the Eestraint of 
Appeals to Eome." By this Law whoever carried his 
case " out of the jurisdiction of the realm " for decision 
at Eome, as was customary hitherto, incurred the 
severest penalties. Henry withheld for a time his 
signature to this decided act of hostility. At last, 
driven furious by the Pope's inaction, he made Cranmer 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and ordered him to assemble 
a Court of Inquiry, at which the Archbishop presided. 
This Court in May, 1533, pronounced the desired di- 
vorce ; but the amorous King had already married Anne 
Boleyn in November, 1532, and she gave birth to a 
daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, in September, 1533. 

The Pope declared the sentence of Cranmer null, as 
well as the second marriage. All hope of reconciliation 
with the Pope was now abandoned ; and, expecting the 
thunders of excommunication to fall on him for this 
contempt ot Papal authority, Henry resolved upon 
open war. 

The first step of the King was to secure the allegiance 
01 the English Clergy. They were summoned to choose 
between the spiritual authority of the King and that 



1 84 A *^' ^^^ TORICA L RE TROSPE C T. 

of the Pope. The Clergy, in equal dread of the 
Parliament and the Crown, promptly recognized the 
King as the Head of the Church in England. Statute 
now followed statute against " the Bishop of Kome, 
otherwise called the Pope." New modes of consecrating 
the Archbishops and Bishops were provided, and new 
processes devised for carrying on the spiritual affairs 
of the Kingdom. Everything was planned to put an 
end to the power of the Pope in England, and to pre- 
vent him extracting pecuniary benefit from the English 
people. The House of Commons sent a Petition to the 
King, saying " that his subjects were greatly decayed 
and impoverished by the intolerable exactions of the 
Bishop or the See of Eome, pretending and persuading 
them he had the power to dispense with human laws 
in causes which were called spiritual, whereas your 
Grrace's realm, recognizing no superior under God, but 
only your Grace, hath been, and is free from subjection 
to any man's laws — but only such laws as have been 
made within this realm, and not the laws of any 
foreign prince, potentate, or prelate — whicli the King, 
the Lords temporal, and the Commons in Parliament 
have full power to abrogate and annul as to them shall 
seem meet for the good of the realm." 

This was the old spirit of resistance to arbitrary 
rule which the Lords and Commons had displayed from 
Magna Charta down to the civil wars ; and if the im- 
petuous King had been more sagacious he would not 
have rekindled the flame of independence which was 
still smouldering in the breast of the Nation. With 
the keenest relish the Lords and Middle Class followed 
the headstrong Henry in his war on the despotism of 
the Pope, secretly meaning when the time came to put 
a similar check on the tyranny of the Crown. 



ENGLAND. . 1 8$ 

Amid the booming of the Parliamentary guns, the 
King of France, Francis I., tried to reconcile Henry 
with the Pope. The attempt was foiled by a mere 
accident. 

The Parliament of 1534 declared "the King's Grace 
to be the authorised Supreme Head of the English 
Church," which the Clergy had already felt themselves 
constrained to acknowledge. All persons were required 
to subscribe to this declaration by Oath. The Oath was 
generally taken throughout the Kingdom. Some per- 
sons refused, and were executed for High Treason. 
Amongst those who hesitated was the celebrated scholar, 
Sir Thomas More, formerly Speaker of the Commons, 
and who had succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor. He 
resigned this post, disapproving of the King's quarrel 
with the Pope. Cranmer urged him vehemently to 
take the " Oath of Supremacy," but in vain. He was 
imprisoned in the Tower for some months, and, per- 
sisting in his obstinacy, was tried and executed. Some 
Charter House Monks also refused the Oath, and were 
beheaded in their ecclesiastical dress. 

The heaviest blow at Papal influence, however, was 
given in the Parliament of 1535 when the Monasteries 
were attacked. The King was glad enough to enrich 
his coffers with the spoils of the Church, and the people 
generally thought that this confiscation of the Monas- 
teries might diminish taxation. Still as there was 
great reverence for these ancient establishments, it 
was thought politic to undermine them adroitly before 
breaking them up. 

Commissioners were consequently appointed for a 
general inspection of the " smaller Monasteries." The 
Eeport of these Commissioners was laid on the table 
of the House of Commons, and was made the basis 



1 86 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

of the Law dissolving the Monasteries. The preamble 
is full of animosity against these establishments, de- 
claring that " manifest sin, vicious, carnal, and abomin- 
able luxury is daily used and committed in such little 
and small abbeys, priories, and other religious houses of 
monks, canons, and nuns. Amendment has been long 
tried, but their vicious living shamelessly increaseth 
and augmenteth." The remedy adopted was " to sup- 
press such small houses, and that the religious persons 
therein be committed to great and honorable monas- 
teries of religion in this realm wherein (thanks to Grod) 
religion is right well kept and observed." The Law 
then gave the King all the small Monasteries, " with 
their lands, tithes, and tenements, and all their orna- 
ments, jewels, goods, moveables, and debts." 

Four years later a Statute was levelled at the larger 
Monasteries. This Statute stated that the abbots, 
priors, abbesses, and prioresses had " of their own free 
and voluntary minds, goodwill, and assents, " re- 
nounced their monasteries, abbeys, and priories, which 
with all their lands and other property were given to 
the King. 

His Majesty apparently cared little for the lands, 
for he gave some away, and sold more at low prices to 
the nobility, gentry, merchants, and traders. "The 
liberation of so much property,'' says Eowland, " from 
the inertness of monastic rule and its distribution 
and diffusion amongst so many persons could not 
be but a benefit to the nation." Hallam thinks 
that a great many estates of the families of the 
day, both within and without the Peerage, obtained 
their titles at this time and in this way. Certes, most 
of the Nobility who had lost their property in the civil 



ENGLAND, 1 87 

wars were glad to get these lands cheap, which enabled 
them to build up again their political and social im- 
portance. Thus it happened that the English Mon- 
archy in driving the Pope out of England unwittingly 
put weapons in the hands of the Aristocracy and Middle 
Class which were afterwards destined to destroy its own 
power. 

One effect of the abolition of the Monasteries was 
striking. Twenty-six Parliamentary abbots and two 
Parliamentary priors lost their seats in the House of 
Lords ; and thus at the ensuing Parliament there were 
present only 20 spiritual Peers to 41 temporal Peers. 
Sooner or later this change was destined to have con- 
siderable influence on the position of the Crown. 

It should not be inferred from the overthrow of the 
Papacy that the Catholic religion had been superseded 
in England. This was by no means the case, as will 
be seen from the six new Dogmas Henry desired Par- 
liament to enforce by law : — 

First, the Real Presence at the Sacrament ; second, 
Communion in one Kind only ; third, that Priests may 
not marry ; fourth, that Vows of Chastity or Widow- 
hood ought to be observed ; fifth, that Private Masses 
be continued in the English Church ; sixth. Auricular 
Confession. Any person teaching, preaching, or holding 
opinions contrary to these Articles was to suffer 
death, and to forfeit his lands and goods as a felon. 
It is plain from this that in Henry's time the Reforma- 
tion had made very little progress, though he unques- 
tionably prepared the ground for it very effectually. 

It is singular tliat the frantic passion of the lustful 
King for Anne Boleyn led to the advent of Protest- 
antism in England ; and yet in three short years he 



1 88 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPEC T. 

beheaded her on the pretext of adultery. The day 
after, he married Jane Seymour, who had been a Maid of 
Honor to Anne, as the latter had been to Catherine. 
His third wife died in a year, after giving birth to a 
son. The fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, he repudiated 
by Act of Parliament, and then married Catherine 
Howard, grand-child of the Duke of Norfolk. He 
beheaded her two years afterwards on the charge of 
infidelity, and married Catherine Parr, the widow of 
Lord Latimer, who survived him. 

Henry wound up his turbulent career by restoring 
to the Crown some of its " ancient prerogatives" granted 
away by his progenitors. Parliament ventured on no 
resistance to his tyrannical instincts, satisfied with 
their emancipation from the gripe of the Church. The 
reckoning with Eo3^aIty was reserved for hereafter. 
During this reign the first Bankrupt law on record was 
passed. 

Edward VI., son of Jane Seymour, succeeded in 1547. 
Being only nine years old, the Kingdom was admi- 
nistered by his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, as Lord 
Protector, with a Council of which Archbishop Cranmer 
was the head. 

Parliament under the influence of these two dis- 
tinguished men continued its legislation against 
Rome. 

It was declared High Treason to say or write that the 
King was not Head of the Church, or that the Pope was. 
The Parliament also took away benefit of Clergy, or Sanc- 
tuary, from persons convicted of murder and sundry 
other offences, but declared that " a LDrd of Parliament 
or Peer of the realm, should of common grace have 
benefit of clergy, though he could not read, for the 



. 



ENGLAND. 1 89 

first offence." It likewise repealed many of the late 
tyrannical statutes of Henry VIII. 

The reign of Edward lasted only six years ; but the 
Schism in the Church was actively promoted by Arch- 
bishop Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Eidley. The 
Protestant sect made rapid progress. The Book of 
Common Prayer now used dates from this reign. 

Mary, daughter of ^Catherine of Arragon, succeeded 
in 1553, being then thirty-seven years old. She was 
the first Queen Regnant since the Conquest. Mary 
inherited her father's barbarous disposition, and began 
her bloody reign by executing Lady Jane Grey — a de- 
scendant of Henry VII., and only seventeen years of 
age — for aspiring to the throne. This accomplished 
Princess was involved in this attempt against her will 
by the intrigues of the Duke of Northumberland, who 
was also beheaded. 

Mary was a rigid Catholic, and married her relative, 
the bigot Philip, son of Charles V. of Spain, 1554. 
The Queen and her husband began a fierce crusade 
against the Protestant converts. Archbishop Cranmer 
was arrested as a heretic, and though he retracted, was 
executed. During Mary's brief reigTi of five years, one 
Archbishop, three Bishops, and many Clergymen, with 
three hundred of the laity, perished at the stake, whilst 
many others died in prison. 

Parliament was forced to pass a Law repealing 
all the Acts of Henry and Edward against the 
See Apostolic of Rome ; but it was found impos- 
sible to restore the Church property granted away, and 
Her Majesty was less anxious on this point, as a good 
deal of it still belonged to the Crown. The power of the 
Monarchy at this timet may be measured from the fact 



1 90 AN HIS TO RICA L RE TR OSPE C T. 

that Parliament could thus be forced to abolish all its 
recent legislation against the Papacy. 

Mary died, in 1558, of grief at the neglect of Philip,* 
who abandoned her two years after their marriage. 
The loss of Calais, which had been reconquered by the 
French, is said to have hastened her demise. 

Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, succeeded in 
1558, being then twenty-five years old. Her father 
at first excluded her from the throne, calling her illegi- 
timate, and consigned her to seclusion. This hardened 
her character, and stimulated her intellect. She ac- 
quired extensive knowledge, and was mistress of the 
French, Italian, Latin, and Grreek languages. 

No one contested her title in England, but the Pope 
forbade her to assume the Crown without his consent, and 
claimed England as a fief of the Papacy from the time 
of King John ; at the same time assuring the Queen of 
his friendly disposition, if she would acknowledge his 
Supremacy. Elizabeth recalled her Ambassador from 
Eome, and set the Pope at defiance. She gave liberty 
to all imprisoned for their religion, and selected 
for her Ministers those favorable to the new Sect. 
A Parliament was called, which readily restored to the 
Crown the ecclesiastical supremacy vested by Mary in 
the Pope ; re-enacted the laws of Henry and Edward, 
and then went heartily to work to build up the new 
worship. The new church, or Church of England, was 
organized on the basis of the " Thirty-nine Articles " 

* It would seem that Philip was much fonder of pork than his wife, 
for he used to dine on it daily, and eat so much as to be frequently ill. 
Even up to this time pork was in general consumption, and some cen- 
turies earlier it constituted almost the only article of food, as beef, veal 
and mutton were comparatively uukuown. In France, Charlemagne 
kept in his forests immense droves of swme. 



ENGLAND, I9I 

agreed on by the Convocation of Bishops, where it 
reposes to this day. 

Elizabeth inherited the domineering spirit of her 
father, and she was resolved that no one should govern 
in England but herself — neither Pope, Nobility, nor 
Middle Class. She displayed great vigor in extin- 
guishing the old religion, and such was the jealousy of 
foreign influence that popular feeling sustained her. 
The legislation against the Catholics became more and 
more severe. An Insurrection at last broke out in the 
north of England to supersede Elizabeth by raising Mary 
Queen of Scots to the throne. The Pope encouraged the 
effort, and issued a Bull, excommunicating Elizabeth, 
and depriving her of the Crown for " her heinous crimes 
against the Church." The rising was unsuccessful, and 
new laws of greater rigor followed. Every kind of 
penalty up to death was distributed against those who 
read or listened to Bulls, or who brought into the realm 
"things called Agnus Dei, or any pictures, crosses, 
beads, or such like superstitious things, consecrated, as 
it is termed, by the Bishop of Rome." 

In nearly every Parliament of her long reign. Popery 
in all its phases was passionately denounced. In that of 
1581, penalties were decreed against " every one who 
should say or sing Mass." In that of 1585, an Act was 
passed, expelling " Jesuits, seminary priests, and other 
such like disobedient persons." In that of 1593, a Law 
was made, " restraining Popish recusants to some certain 
places of abode." 

All these statutes were meant to establish the supre- 
macy of the Crown, as against all foreign Poten- 
tates, as well as to settle the national religion. This 
extreme legislation was acceptable to the Nation, not so 



1 92 AN HISTORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

mucli out of love for the new doctrines, as tlie desire 
to be independent of all foreign domination. Great 
misery must have ensued from these cruel edicts, but 
no complete record exists of the thousands who suffered 
from fines, imprisonment, and banishment. Historians 
compute that some two hundred Catholics were put to 
death in this reign of forty-five years. 

During most of her sway, " Queen Bess " had been so 
engrossed in her struggle with the Catholics, that she 
failed to perceive a New Sect had developed itself until 
it was actually standing upright before her. Well might 
the Queen be puzzled by the appearance, and more still 
by the novel ideas of this Sect. This mysterious band 
of devotees entirely approved the persecution of the 
Catholics ; did not dispute, like the Papists, the tem- 
poral authority of the Queen ; did not even desire to 
separate from the new national Church, but only to re- 
form it. Here had Elizabeth spent nearly all her life 
enforcing on the poor Catholics her Reformed religion, 
and now a new-born organization had sprung up which 
proposed to reform that ! Luther, too, who had so 
recently picked holes in the time-worn garments of 
Catholicism, now had his new drapery of Grerman 
manufacture disparaged even before its gloss had gone. 
One form of scepticism had already created another. 
Heresy w^as on its' march. Elizabeth and her ad- 
visers must have been perplexed by these new-comers, 
who were not only anxious to carry out the Reformation, 
then all the vogue, but wished to carry it further than 
the Protestant Elizabeth or her Protestant Ministers of 
State had ever meditated. They proposed dropping 
all forms and ceremonies which the express word of 
Scripture did not support. They did not approve of 



ENGLAND, 1 93 

the symbol of the Cross, of the surplice, of the ring in 
marriage, or of kneeling at the altar during the Sacra- 
ment. But that was not all. They fully agreed that 
the ecclesiastical authority should not be vested in 
the Pope ; but, then, they did not see why it should 
be invested in anybody, either in King, Queen, or 
Hierarchy. 

This was reforming the Reformation in a way Queen 
Bess neither understood nor liked. It occurred to her, 
doubtless, that if this new batch of reformers — known 
by the odd name of Puritans — were allowed to topple 
over all ecclesiastical authority, they might, before 
long, aspire to pull down all political authority also, 
especially in the shape of Absolute Monarchy. It 
is clear she suspected their intentions towards Mon- 
archy were not strictly honorable, for she ordered 
Parliament to enact forthwith that " Any persons above 
the age of sixteen years, refusing to come to the 
church established by law, and who should willingly 
join in, or be present at, any unlawful assemblies, con- 
venticles, or meetings, under color or pretence of the 
exercise of religion, should be committed to prison; 
there to remain until they should conform and come to 
church." Again, " Any person who should not within 
three months after conviction, conform himself when 
required to do so, should abjure and depart from the 
realm, and if he returned without license, should be 
adjudged, and suffer a^ a felon." 

These point-blank Laws compelled the proscribed 
Sect either to abandon its convictions, or to conceal its 
dislike of the Romish ceremonies still retained in the 
Church of England, or to seek a land where they could 
carry out the Scripture in all its ^' puiity." Choosing 

8 N 



194 ^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

the last course, many of the so-called Puritans embarked 
for Holland ; whence in 1620 they sailed across the sea, 
and landed on Plymouth Eock, North America. Thus, 
unwittingly, the Virgin Queen became the mother of 
the American Democracy, and Henry VIII. must be 
regarded as its grandfather, from having introduced the 
Eeformation into England. 

A goodly number of the Puritans, however, remained 
in England, and caused Elizabeth no small vexation. 
A certain Peter Wentworth, Member of the Commons, 
was a great stickler for the privileges of Parliament, 
and was frequently sent to the Tower. In 1571, he 
got up " a Petition to the Lords to be Suppliants with 
the Lower House to the Queen.'' This was the old 
combination of the Aristocracy and Middle Class which 
had given so much trouble to Elizabeth's predecessors. 
The project was nipped in the bud by locking up Went- 
worth in the Tower. Nothing daunted, we find the 
plucky Puritan, four years later, declaiming in Parlia- 
ment for the right of " free speech." "Two things," he 
said, " do great hurt here. One, a rumor which run- 
neth about the House — ' Take heed what you do ; the 
Queen's Majesty liketh not such a matter.' The other 
is a message sometimes brouoht into the House, either 
commanding or inhibiting, very injurious to the free- 
dom of speech and consultation. "Would to God, Mr. 
Speaker, that these two things were buried in hell. 
The King hath no peer or equal in the kingdom, but 
he ought to be under God and the law, because the 
law maketh him a King." Of course Wentworth was 
again assigned to the Tower. Three years afterwards, 
still refractory, he put a series of Questions to the 
Speaker in Parliament, to wit : " Whether this House 



ENGLAND. 1 95 

be not a place for any Member freely to utter any of 
the griefs of the commonwealth ? Whether honor may 
be done to Grod, and benefit and service to the Prince 
and State, without free speech ? Whether there be any 
councils besides Parliament which can make, add to, 
or diminish from, the laws of this realm ?" Went- 
worth's curiosity cost him a third trip to tlie Tower. 
No wonder Elizabeth lost her temper with these inqui- 
sitive Puritans. The genius of the future Yankee might 
be discerned in their prying propensities. 

There can be no doubt that England prospered under 
the intelligent despotism of Queen Bess. In agricul- 
tm-e, commerce, and navigation, the Nation made pro- 
gress ; letters flourished ; the finances were economized ; 
Sir Francis Drake sailed round the world ; Bacon's philo- 
sophy and Shakspeare's poetry immortalized the epoch : 
yet Monarchy was never so despotic since the date of 
Magna Charta. " The administration of the law," says 
Eowland, " in civil as in religious matters, was directed 
by the Queen's personal wishes. In the Court of Star 
Chamber she was the sole judge, and might fine, im- 
prison, and punish corporally by whipping, branding, 
slittiDg nostrils and ears." The High Commission 
Court, instituted by Archbishop Whitgift by her orders, 
carried into effect the terrible penalties against the 
Catholics and Puritans. " No man," wrote Elizabeth to 
the Archbishop, " should be suffered to decline, either 
to the right or left hand, from the drawn line marked 
by authority." This was the quintessence of tyranny. 
Martial law constantly superseded the ordinary courts 
and juries, and was often used against religious otfen- 
deis. The rack, though nob acknowledged by the laws 
of England, was ireely employed in her reign, and not 

N 2 



196 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

only by the authomty of the Queen, but by that also 
of her Secretaries and Privy Councillors, each of whom 
might imprison anyone he suspected, and at his own 
discretion order him to the rack. Hallam declared 
that the Courts of Justice, in cases of Treason, were 
little better than "caverns of murderers." The laws 
were frequently superseded by Eoyal proclamations. 

Elizabeth's sway over Parliament was absolute. It 
was not allowed to legislate on religious or state 
affairs. In the Session of 1571 she told them — " They 
should do well to meddle with no matters of State, but 
such as should be propounded unto them." In the 
Parliament of 1592, the Speaker, by command of the 
Queen, said, " Her Majesty's present charge and com- 
mand is, that no bills touching matters of State, or 
reformation in causes ecclesiastical, be exhibited. And 
upon my allegiance I am commanded, if such bill be 
exhibited, not to read it." She wondered " that an^ 
would be of so high commandment to attempt a thing 
contrary to that she hath so expressly forbidden." Any 
obstinate Members who infringed the Royal commands 
were summoned to the Privy Council, where they were 
so startled by the punishments held over them, that 
" when they returned to their seats, their terror was 
visible in their faces, and communicated itself to all 
around." Elizabeth had an ingenious mode of in- 
creasing her pocket-money by granting monopolies for 
the exclusive sale of commodities, some of them the 
common necessaries of life. A list of those granted to 
lier courtiers was read in the House of Commons in 
1601, when an indignant Member asked, " Is not bread 
amongst them ? " 

The imprisonment for eighteen years of Mary, Queen 



ENGLAND. 1 9/ 

of Scots, who had thrown herself on the protection of 
the English Queen, and her final execution on a mere 
pretext, in lo87, is one of the foulest crimes of 
Elizabeth's reign. 

Though stern and relentless, she seemed to have a 
sentimental vein, for her love of the Earl of Leicester, 
whom she covered with honors, never abated whilst 
he lived. Her passion, too, for the Earl of Essex was so 
profound that remorse is said to have shortened her 
life from having, in a moment of fury, signed his 
death-warrant. She died not long after Essex's death, 
in 1603. 

The "Act for the Eelief of the Poor," 1601, known 
as the Poor Law, is the only one that reflects any 
credit on the legislation of this reign. 

The story of the sixteenth century in England is now 
told, though briefly. How little the two chief actors 
comprehended their roles ! 

Henry VIII., enraged at the Pope's opposition to 
his divorce, declared himself the Head of the Church 
in England ; and then to obtain money seized on the 
property of the Catholic Priesthood. These acts of the 
King encouraged a small band of religious Eeformers, 
fervent disciples of Luther, to propagate their new 
doctrines. They translated tlie Bible into English, 
calling on all to form their own opinions on religious 
matters, and to be governed no longer by the authority 
of the Pope and Priesthood, as in past centuries. The 
King little understood what this meant. It was sheer 
rebellion against the control of the Church that had 
so long governed the minds of men. Many such rebel- 
lions against the Papacy had been attempted before 
in various countries, but were crushed because the 



198 AN HIS TORICA L RE TROSPECT. 

people were superstitious and clung to the Pope. 
Other Kings before Henry VIII. were anxious to con- 
centrate the spiritual and temporal power in their 
hands, but dared not. Those who attempted it were 
excommunicated, and to save their crowns were forced 
to make peace with the Pope. In England, as has 
been shown, the long struggle of the Barons and the 
Middle Class against the absolute authority of the Mo- 
narchy had ripened the popular mind for independence. 
They were ready when the sixteenth century came for 
rebellion. The King's personal quarrel with the Pope 
opened the door, and the Nation rushed into the arms 
of the Reformation. 

The Church of England, however, did not satisfy 
such sceptics as Peter Wentworth and his class. The 
Bishops of the new Church insisted on passive obedience 
just as the Bishops of the old. The Puritans of England, 
and the Presbyterians of Scotland, were bent on saying 
their prayers in their own way — standing up, or sitting 
down, or in any other fashion that suited them. This 
was setting all ecclesiastical authority at defiance. 

Elizabeth foresaw, as was said, what such diabolical 
heresy might lead to. If people were allowed to snap 
their fingers at the authority of the Church of England, 
they might some day venture to dispute the authority 
of the Crown of England. So she locked up the Puri- 
tans, or bade them " abjure and depart from the realm." 
The Puritans remembered, however, that she and her 
father rebelled against the Pope simply because they 
wished to be independent, and they resolved sooner or 
later to profit by their example. The most impatient 
among them embarked for the wilds of America, and 
the rest remained to carry out their plans at home. 



, ENGLAND. 1 99 

The reader can hardly fail to recognize that these 
resolute opponents of arbitrary power in Church and 
State were no other than the descendants of those 
Saxons of the Middle Class, " the freemen," whom the 
Norman Barons were obliged to take into partnership 
in order to clip the wings of the Monarchy. The two 
fought their way successfully together, constantly cur- 
tailing the Royal power and adding to Parliamentary 
control down to Henry V., 1413, when the wars with 
France stopped the constitutional struggle. 

Then, as stated, came the civil wars of " the Roses," 
which led to the advent of the Tudor dynasty. 

It was shown, also, that the policy of Henry VII., the 
first of the Tudor line, was, as Bacon expressed it, " to 
keep a strait hand on his nobility, and chose rather to 
advance clergymen and lawyers, which were more obse- 
quious to him, but had less interest in the people." 
This conduct of the King was sagacious beyond doubt, 
for he knew the Aristocracy had always been the leaders 
of the Middle Class in their joint crusade against the 
Monarchy. 

His son, Henry VIII., adopted similar factics, and kept 
the Nobles in check, preferring to advance obsequious 
Clergymen, such as Archbishops Wolsey and Cranmer. 

Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, did not forget the 
example of her grandsire. " She seemed to delight," 
says Buckle, " in humbling the nobhs. On them her 
hand fell heavily." He also remarks : " Whatever ex- 
planation we may choose to give of the fact, it cannot 
be denied that during the reign of Elizabeth, there 
was an open and constant opposition between the 
nobles and the executive government." No doubt 
there was, for the Aristocracy had now recovered from 



200 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

tlie exhaustion of the foreign and civil wars, and were 
ready to unite with their old allies of the Middle Class 
to reduce Monarchy to constitutional limits. Elizabeth, 
too, employed " clergymen and lawyers," dreading to put 
power in the hands of the Nobles. Cecil, Walsingham, 
and Whitgift were able men, but they were the obse- 
quious tools of the most despotic Sovereign England 
ever knew. 

It is singular that the learned Buckle, whose demo- 
cratic bias is decided, should glorify Elizabeth for op- 
pressing the Aristocracy when he must have known 
that the conjunction of the Aristocracy with the Middle 
Class had been the sole means of promoting popular 
freedom. He also applauds the " Great Queen " for 
pushing on the Eeformation — which she did whilst it 
enhanced her power — yet he strangely refrains from 
censure when she turned like a tigress on the Puritans 
who logically sought to make the Reformation a 
reality. Her two favorite aversions were the Aris- 
tocracy and the Puritans, and who were these but 
the descendants of those very Barons and Freemen 
whose "singular alliance," as Buckle elsewhere calls 
it, " was the condition of the popular privileges " ob- 
tained centuries before ? His strong admiration for 
the tyrannical Elizabeth led the historian into grave 
contradictions, as well as incorrect interpretations of 
facts. No sooner had his " Great Queen " passed away 
than the Aristocracy and Puritans raised their heads 
once more, and the consequences to Monarchy were 
serious indeed. 



DECLINE OF THE MONARCHY. 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

We now enter the seventeenth century, memorable 
for the birth of Civil Liberty, and the downfall of 
Absolute Government in England. 

James I. of England was son of Mary Queen of Scots, 
and therefore King of Scotland. He ascended the 
English throne in 1 603, as the great-grandson of Henry 
VIL, whose daughter Margaret married James IV. of 
Scotland. He was the first of the Stuart family* to reign 
in England, and the Crowns of the two countries were 
united thenceforth. He took the title of King of Great 
Britain. 

His welcome in England was most cordial, and above 
all by Parliament, for it not only rejoiced at escaping 
from the clutches of the despotic Elizabeth, but 
saw in the advent of a foreign King, whose influence 
Avould naturally be less, an opportunity for extending 
Parliamentary authority, and diminishing Monarchical 
power. Parliament had been so trodden upon by the 
Tudors, that it yearned to avenge itself upon Arbitrary 
Monarchy. It had yielded grimly to this oppression, 
not only for the causes cited, but also because Henry 



* The Stuarts were descendants of Banqno, Thane of Lochaber, assas- 
sinated in the eleventh century by Macbeth. 
9* 



202 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Vlir. and Elizabeth had, though for their own special 
purposes, promoted the Reformation, which Parliament 
and the Nation desired. But now the course was clear. 
An Arbitrary Church had been overthrown, and reli- 
gious freedoon had been secured. An Arbitrary ]Mo- 
narchy was next to be assailed, and civil liberty was 
the trophy to be won. It was such ideas as these that 
inspired the Parliament which met in 1604. 

King James, on the other hand, who was an amiable 
and learned man, entertained no doubt of the Divine 
Eight of Kings, and the passive obedience of tlie people. 
" A perfect kingdom," he declared, " is that where the 
King rules all things according to his own will," and he 
even wrote a book to prove this thesis. With such dis- 
positions as these on both sides a collision was inevi- 
table. " It was with the Stuart kings," says Rowland, 
" that the battle between prerogative and freedom was 
fought." 

It is somewhat strange that for the first two years, 
the King and the Parliament, who were destined to 
become such bitter antagonists, never met without 
using the gentlest language towards each other — for all 
the world like two duellists shaking hands before drawing 
swords. 

An attempt to blow up with gunpowder both the 
King and Parliament, 1605, was discovered only the 
day before the King was to open the Session in 
person. Guy Fawkes, a Catholic officer, was arrested 
as he was about to fire several barrels of powder con- 
cealed in the cellars under the House of Lords. 

This was a suitable moment for panegyric. "No nation 
of the earth," says the Act of Parliament, passed on this 
occasion, " hath been blessed with greater benefits than 



ENGLAND. 203 

this kingdom now enjoy eth ; having the true and free 
profession of the Gospel, under our most gracious sove- 
reign lord King James, the most great, learned, and 
religious king that ever reigned therein." 

This billing and cooing was, however, short-lived, for 
after passing sundry cruel laws against the Papists, the 
House of Commons began to display a sense of its 
importance that must have astounded the King. It 
declared on one occasion that it alone was the judge 
of the election-returns of its Members. On another, 
it decided tliat Members were free from arrest, and 
sent to the Tower the Warder of the Fleet Prison for 
contempt in not giving up Sir Thomas Shirley, arrested 
for debt. Then followed a document, drawn up by a 
Committee of the House, and addressed to the King', 
which summed up their opinion of their rights and pri- 
vileges in these words : — " Our privileges are our right 
and due inheritance, no less than our lands and goods." 

Such volcanic language as this, brought a trumpet- 
blast from the indignant King. "The state of Monarchy," 
he said to the Parliament of 1610, "is the supremest 
thing upon earth, for Kings are not only God's Lieute- 
nants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even 
by God himself they are called Gods. Kings have like 
power with God ; they make and unmake tlieir subjects, 
have power of life and death ; are judges over all their 
subjects and in all causes, and are accountable to God 
alone." Elizabeth never uttered such thunderbolts as 
these. Her custom was simply to send for the mischief- 
makers in the House, and threaten them with the rack. 
Conduct so energetic had the desired effect ; but the 
pedantic speech-making of the milder James had no 
terrors for Parliament. On the contrary, they persisted 



204 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

in their audacious course, and even went so far as to 
adopt the strategy of the old Parliaments, which often 
adjourned chuckling at having voted no subsidies. This 
period — 1614-1620 — is described as " halcyon days in 
England ; no taxes being paid, trade open to all parts 
of the world, profound peace." 

The struggle between James and Parliament grew 
more and more obstinate. When he dissolved the 
Parliament of 1 620, the Commons entered a vigorous 
protest on their journals. The King sent for them, 
" and rent out the protestation with his own hand," 
denouncing " the ill-tempered spirits " who had con- 
trived it. This time, however, his anger took a more 
practical turn, for he sent Sir Edwar(J Coke, the great 
lawyer, and Sir E. Philips to the Tower, and jNIessrs. 
Selden, Pym, and Mallory to other " prisons and con- 
finements." 

The Parliament of 1623 was eager to support Pro- 
testant Grermany in a war against Catholic Grermany, 
and agreed to vote large subsidies, but on condition that 
" eight citizens of London were appointed treasurers " 
of the fund, and " two other selected persons to be 
His Majesty's Privy Council for the war," and, further, 
" that all these should be accountable to the Commons 
in Parliament." This was considered " an extraordi- 
nary innovation," as indeed it was ; but it arose from 
the conviction of Parliament that the King's Ministers 
were all corrupt men. The chief of them, the I>uke of 
Buckingham, it cordially detested. 

We find a glaring proof of the prevalent dishonesty 
in high places in the conduct of the Lord Chancellor, 
the learned Bacon. This celebrated man began life as a 
lawyer. He entered the House of Commons in Eliza- 



ENGLAND. 205 

betli's reign, but made no further progress at tliat 
period. James, appreciating bis great abilities, advanced 
bim rapidly, until be reached the woolsack* in 1G18. 
Not long afterwards, be was impeached by the Commons, 
and tried by the Lords for selling places and privileges 
within bis gift. He was condemned to imprisonment 
in the Tower ; £40,000 fine, and future disqualification 
— 1621. The accusation and sentence were principally 
inspired by the bitter hostility of Parliament to Buck- 
ingham, whose creature it considered Bacon to be. 
The King remitted the imprisonment and fine, but the 
disgraced Lord Chancellor, fortunately for posterity, 
retired from public life, and gave himself up to philo-. 
sophy. His intellect was the greatest of his age. Since 
Aristotle, no such master-mind had appeared.f 

One of the last acts of Parliament in this reign was 
to abolish those grants of monopolies by the Crown in 
which Elizabeth l]ad so freely indulged. One case only 
was excepted, that of a new invention, to which a mono- 
poly for fourteen years was allowed. This was the origin 
of the familiar Patent Law% The first lottery drawn in 
England was instituted in this reign. 

It is perhaps worthy of notice that in the struggles 
between Parliament and James, the House of Commons 
was always in the van. This may be attributed to the 

* The -woolsack was first introduced in the House of Lords as the 
Chancellor's seat in the time ot Elizabeth as a memento of an Act 
which was passed against the exportation of wool, that commodity being 
then the main source of the national wealth of England. It is com- 
posed of a large square bag of wool without either back or arms, and 
covered with red cloth. 

t Bacon is called the ifather of Experimental Philosophy, since he 
proposed that facts, instead of hypothesis, should be the basis of all 
reasoning. He wrote copiously on History, Politics, Morals, and 
Philosophy, In his " ^"ovum Organum " he attacked the deductive 
method of Aristotle's Logic and advocated his own — the inductive. 



206 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

strategy of the Lords who, though just as eager for the 
reduction of the Eoyal prerogative, did not desire to 
figure too prominently. The perfect accord between 
them is seen in the fact that the Commons constantly 
abandoned what the Lords refused to sanction. Their 
joint action was, of course, necessary to any successful 
attack on the Crown. In this way the old alliance of 
the Nobles and Middle Class was gradually working 
miracles in the cause of Constitutional Grovernment. 

The next reign begot events that nullified for a time 
this ancient partnership, and the result of the breach 
was after years of turmoil the advent of a subtle 
despot who " ruled all things according to his own will." 

The contest which had arisen in the previous reign 
between Parliament and the King was based on the 
determination of the Nation, through its representatives, 
not to be governed by Absolute Monarchy. The struggle 
of the Nobles and Middle Class against despotic power, 
which had begun in the days of the Magna Charta, 
1215, had been continued for over four centuries, and, 
except in the interval occupied by the Tudor dynasty, 
the Nation, through Parliament, had constantly acquired 
increased control over its destinies. In spite of King 
James's lofty notions of his prerogative, Parliamentary 
Government steadily advanced ; but the reign of 
Charles I. was destined to witness the eclipse of both 
Parliament and King. 

The temporary overthrow of the ancient Government 
must be ascribed more to. glaring defects in the nature 
of Charles L, than to want of intelligence. His alter- 
nate waywardness, indecision, and levity, to say nothing 
of his childish duplicity, exposed him to the pernicious 
counsels of incompetent and unprincipled men. Such 



i 



ENGLAND, 20/ 

a character as his coming in contact with the passions 
of that time necessarily entailed the catastrophe which 
ensued. The unfortunate Charles is well described in 
a phrase of the Latin poet, Nil fuit unquam sic impar 
sibi — no man ever exhibited such a mass of inconsis- 
tencies and contradictions. This much said, let us 
follow the events. 

Charles I., son of James, ascended the throne in 1625. 
He was twenty-five when his reign began, and three 
months afterwards married Henrietta Maria, daughter of 
Henry IV., one of the wisest and best of French Kings. 

Soon after his accession he engaged in war with Spain 
on religious grounds, and summoned his first Parliament 
to obtain supplies. Their antipathy to the Duke of 
Buckingham, the Minister of Charles, as he had been 
of his father, was so great that they procrastinated 
until the King in anger dissolved Parliament. As no 
money had been voted, Charles resorted to the old ex- 
pedient of forced loans. This measure led to grievous 
exactions, and yet was inadequate. 

The King resolved then to call a second Parliament — 
1626. The new House of Commons was in scarcely a 
better mood than its predecessor. Still it showed a 
disposition at times to vote supplies, but some impetuous 
act of Charles led to new difficulties. He imprisoned two 
Members of the Commons for language offensive to him, 
and likewise a Member of the Lords, the Earl of 
Arundel. The Lords, by conciliation, effected the release 
of the Members of the Commons, and obtained the dis- 
charge of their own Member by an unanimous demand. 
Finding the Commons still lingering over tte supply 
so frequently called for, Charles dissolved Parliament a 
second time within a year. New schemes were adopted 



208 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

to raise money, wbicli Charles considered Lis preroga- 
tive fully authorized ; but Parliament held a different 
theory. The Nobility were called on for contributions ; 
and a loan of £100,000 was demanded from the City 
of London. The subsidies which the Commons had dis- 
cussed without voting were exacted in the shape of 
loans. ]\Iany distinguished men refused to pay the 
loans, and were imprisoned. 

An expedition to relieve French Protestants at Ro- 
chelle was fitted out with the money so obtained, but 
failed. Furthermore, the war with Spain and France, 
coupled with the onerous taxation, caused much agita- 
tion, and Charles was compelled to reassemble Parlia- 
ment for the third time in 1628. 

The King's opening Speech to Parliament was uncon- 
ciliatory. He said money was the sole object of calling 
Parliament, and he would " use but few persuasions ; 
for if these be not sufficient, then no eloquence of men 
or angels would prevail." After sundry other expres- 
sions of the same tenor, he concluded, " Take not this 
as a "threatening, but as an admonition, for I scorn to 
threaten any but my equals." 

The unsatisfactory condition of things led to long 
debates in both Houses. At the end of two montlis, a 
" Petition of Right " was passed by Lords and Commons, 
which, after reciting Magna Chavta and ancient statutes, 
required that henceforth no man should be taxed in 
any manner without consent of Parliament, and that no 
Freeman be imprisoned without cause shown. The 
King came to Parliament House, and in the presence of 
the Lords and Commons assented to the Petition. Not 
long after, a subsidy was granted, and the Parliament 
was then prorogued. 



ENGLAND. 2C9 

Several of the Clergy offended Parliament by sustain- 
ing tlie King's abuse of power, and one of them, Dr. 
Mainwaring, was impeached by the Commons, tried by 
the Lords, and condemned to prison during the pleasure 
of the House. He was also fined £1,000, and disabled 
from holding any ecclesiastical dignity, Mainwaring, 
however, was promptly pardoned by the King. 

Parliament met after a prorogation of six months. 
New complaints of the illegal acts of the Crown re- 
sounded on all sides. Mr. Eolles, a Member of the 
Commons, said his goods had been unlawfully seized for 
duties. Mr. Selden said the " Petition of Eight " had 
been violated. He referred to the case of a Mr. Prynne, 
who had been deprived of his ears by sentence of the 
Star Chamber. Oliver Cromwell made his first appear- 
ance at this time, and stated that some of the Clergy 
of • the Church of England were preaching " flat 
Popery." The antagonism of the Commons daily in- 
creased, and at last the exasperated King ordered the 
Speaker to adjourn the House for a fortnight. The 
majority of the House, however, compelled the Speaker 
to disobey the order of the King and drew up an in- 
dignant protest. The King, hearing that the House 
would not receive a message from him, and that 
the doors were locked, fell into a rage, and sent a guard 
to force an entrance. Before the guard had arrived, 
however, the House had adjourned. 

The open defiance of Parliament inflamed the King. 
He published a proclamation against the seditious 
conduct of certain Members of the Commons, and 
announced the dissolution of Parliament, which soon 
followed. Nine of the prominent Members of tlie 
Commons were imprisoned. The Judges refused bail, 

o 



2 1 AN HISTORICAL RE TROSPECT, 

and they were committed to the Tower during the 
King's pleasure, and Sir John Elliot, as the ringleader, 
was fined £2,000. 

At this period the Commons were divided into two 
sections bitterly hostile to each other — the Court party 
and the Puritan party. The Lords frequently acted as 
peace-makers between the Lower House and the King, 
but always co-operated with the former in all attempts 
to limit the power of the Crown. Thus far the old 
alliance of Nobles and Middle Class was maintained. 
The power of the King now appeared so irresistible that 
several of the Puritan party went over to him and ac- 
cepted office, for, says Rowland, sarcastically, " their 
patriotism seemed to promise no reward." Amongst 
others. Sir Thomas Went worth left the popular party, 
and was made Earl of Strafford. 

The King now determined to govern without a 
Parliament, and to strengthen himself, made peace 
with France and Spain. An interval of eleven years 
elapsed without a Parliament, during which, says Lord 
Clarendon, "there was peace, plenty, and universal 
tranquillity ;" but the principles of the Constitution, as 
well as the laws on taxation, continued to be violated. 
Amongst other imposts created by the Crown was that 
of "Ship Money," or a tax to provide ships. John 
Hampden, a cousin of Oliver Cromwell, declared the 
demand illegal, and refused to pay his assessment of 
twenty shillings. "Thousands for defence," he ex- 
claimed, " but not a penny for tribute." 

To complete his difficulties, the King at this moment 
became involved in a deadly quarrel with Scotland. 
Archbishop Laud, one of his chief advisers, undertook 
to force the liturgy of the Chui'ch of England on 



ENGLAND. 2 1 1 

Scotland, which had adopted Presbyterianism, intro- 
duced by John Knox in 1558. The Scots rose en masse, 
made a " Solemn League and Covenant " to abide by 
their Kirk ; organized an army, and met the forces of 
Charles at Berwick. A parley ensued, and Charles 
agreed to withdraw the project of Laud. 

Want of funds compelled the King to call his fourth 
Parliament in April, 1640; but as it began discussing 
grievances, Charles abruptly dissolved it in three 
weeks.* 

The English Clergy, under the lead of Archbishop 
Laud, and with the approval of the King, continued 
their aggressions on Presbyterianism. Exasperated 
by this, the Scotch sent an army into England. An 
engagement took place, and the King's forces were 
defeated. The Nation was aroused to fury by these 
events, and petitions came from every quarter for a 
new Parliament, London being specially clamorous. 

* American readers may not be generally aware that a Dissolution o/ 
Parliament involves new elections, which a Prorogation does not. 



oi2 



THE REVOLUTION. 

SB VENTEENTH CENTUR Y. 

The above heading is usually applied in England to the 
bloodless change of Government that took place in 1688, 
whilst that of " Commonwealth " is affixed to the epoch 
following the reign of Charles I. Both titles are 
clearly misnomers as applied to these different periods. 
The tempest which swept away the throne, and left an 
iiiterregniun which was filled by an Absolute Govern- 
ment, can only be designated as a Revolution ; and 
therefore I attach this word to the present chapter, 
which will describe those events. On the other hand, 
I will head the chapter which narrates the pacific sub- 
stitution of William III. for James II. as simply the 
Limitation of the Monarchy, for that was the true mean- 
ing of what occurred. 

The Eevolution, in my opinion, originates from that 
juncture when it was evident that both King and Parlia- 
ment were engaged in a deadly struggle for the supre- 
macy. From this point dates the rise of those waters of 
discord which were destined to flow and swell in volume 
till, finally, they overspread and deluged the land. 

The King then called his fifth Parliament in November, 
1640— better known as the "Long Parliament." The 
Government of the King had brought him into such 
discredit that Parliament was resolved to give him no 
quarter. The Commons were eager for the fray ; " the 



ENGLAND. 2 1 3 

Lords," says Eowland, "were animated by the same 
feeling;" and both went to work in earnest.- The 
Commons impeached the Earl of Strafford, the King's 
chief adviser, and the Lords tried him for High Treason. 
He was condemned and executed. Sir F. Windebank, 
Secretary of State, was next impeached, but he escaped 
to France. The new canons of the Clergy were all 
denounced, as not having the consent of Parliament ; 
the tax called " Ship Money " was declared illegal ; and 
the Commons expelled four of their Members for being 
monopolist patentees. The impeachments of Archbishop 
Laud and the Lord-Keeper Finch followed. The Lords 
condemned the Archbishop, who was afterwards executed. 
Finch fled to France. 

The King was alarmed, and resorted to strategy. He 
summoned both Houses, and made a conciliatory speech. 
More politic still, he offered office to the Puritan party. 
Oliver St. John, one of his bitterest enemies, became 
Solicitor-Greneral. The Earl of Bedford, one of the 
Puritan leaders of the Lords, and Mr. Pym, of the 
Commons, were tempted with high appointments ; but 
they waived their claims until their fellow-leaders were 
provided for. 

Parliament, however, pressed on. They passed an 
Act that neither House should be dissolved or prorogued 
without their consent. The High Commission Court 
and the odious Star Chamber were abolished — both 
effective instruments of tyranny in previous reigns. 
The King was completely cowed. He assented to all 
those Acts stripping him of the prerogatives his pre- 
decessors had enjoyed. He remonstrated sometimes. 
" You have taken the Government almost in pieces," 
he said once : " it is almost off the hinges." 

The surrender of the Koyal power was so complete 



21^ AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

that a popular reaction in the King's favor took place. 
Demonstrations of loyalty and affection burst forth 
whenever he appeared. This alarmed Oliver Cromwell, 
who had now become the real leader of the Puritan party, 
and bent on the downfall of the unfortunate Charles. 
So adroitly had he played his role that few suspected 
it was his hand skilfully guiding the various move- 
ments which were fast precipitating the country into 
civil war. Cromwell counted on the fatuity of his 
intended victim, and was not disappointed. The Puri- 
tan party in the Commons suddenly proposed a 
" Grand Eemonstrance " against any control over 
legislation by the Crown. It was debated twelve hours, 
and passed — 159 to 148. Cromwell said to Lord 
Falkland, as they left the House, " If the Remonstrance 
had been rejected, I w^ould have sold all that I had the 
next morning, and never have seen England more." 
Hume refers to this Remonstrance as aiming at " an 
abolition almost total of the Monarchical Grovernment 
of England." Hallam considers that " it was put 
forward to stem the returning tide of loyalty, which 
threatened to obstruct the further progress of the 
popular leader." Other attacks on the Crown followed. 
The Commons accused twelve Bishops of High Treason, 
and the Lords ordered their arrest. 

The unanimity of the Lords and Commons — the 
Nobles and Middle Class — during this epoch is striking. 
The Lords aimed at the establishment of Parliamentary 
Grovernment, and the abolition of absolute power. So 
did a portion of the Commons, to the number of 148. 
Another portion, counting 159, with Oliver Cromwell 
at their head, had a very different project in view, 
which neither the Nation, the Lords, nor a half of the 
Commons suspected at the time. 



ENGLAND. 2 1 5" 

The King, after lie had accepted the " Grand Ee- 
monstrance " and several other measures strongly 
obnoxious to him, at last determined to yield no more. 
Accordingly, he ordered four Members of the Commons, 
Pym, Hampden, Haselrigge, and Strode, with one 
Member of the Lords, Kimbolton, to be accused of 
High Treason — January, 1642. He even went in per- 
son to the House of Commons with a guard to arrest 
the objects of his resentment ; but they escaped as he 
entered. The King then asked tlie Speaker if the 
accused were present. Falling on his knees, the Speaker 
replied, " I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to 
speak in this place but as the House is pleased to 
direct me, whose servant I am here, and humbly beg 
your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other 
answer tlian this." The House then adjourned in great 
excitement. Next day they passed a declaration that 
the King's proceedings were a breach of the rights and 
privileges of Parliament, and adjourned for a week. 
The House of Lords made a similar adjournment. 

On reassembling, the accused Members took their 
places. The King admitted his impetuosity, offered a 
free pardon, and appealed to the Lords to mediate once 
more between him and the Commons. The appeal, 
however, came too late. The Commons grew more 
defiant. They demanded, with the concurrence of the 
Lords, that the town of Hull, with its magazine and 
arms, should not be given up without their authority. 
Both Houses next passed a Bill removing the Bishops 
from Parliament ; and to this Bill the King, contrary 
to expectation, assented. They then insisted on taking 
the command of the Militia ; but with this demand the 
King resolutely refused to comply, and thus the final 
breach was made. 



•2 1 6 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

From this brief resume it will be plainly seen that 
Parliament was triumphant in every contest with the 
vacillating Charles. It stripped him of all his pre- 
rogatives, and extinguished irresponsible power in 
England. When the King signed the law which made 
Parliament indissoluble but by its own vote, his sur- 
render was complete. If Parliament, therefore, merely 
sought for a preponderance over the Sovereign, the 
struggle was ended. In all the previous conflicts be- 
tween King and Parliament, the concessions of the 
King terminated the contest. In this way for cen- 
turies Parliamentar}^ power grew up, and Eoyal author- 
ity was cut down. It is often asserted that Charles was 
faithless, and would have reclaimed the power he had 
yielded ; but if Parliament was strong enough to take 
it from him, how could he recover it ? The truth is, 
as subsequent facts proved, there was a wing of the 
Puritan party in the Long Parliament of 1640, called 
the " Eoot and Branch Men," and afterwards known 
as the " Independents," who aimed at something more 
than the union of Legislative and Executive power in 
the hands of Parliament — a faction whose real object 
was to suppress the Monarchy itself. The opportunity 
was favorable, for the King though able, was irresolute, 
and controlled by the influences about him,* so that Par- 

* The wife of Charles exercised a fatal ascendency over him. She was 
intrepid, but ignorant of England and the situation. It was she who forced 
the hesitating King to attempt the seizure of the five members of the 
Commons, his bitterest antagonists. " Go, coward," she exclaimed, 
" and pull out these rogues by the ears, or never see my face again." 
When the conflict became inevitable, she escaped to Holland, and sold 
her own and other jewels to buy arms. Eluding the cruisers, she landed 
soon afterwards on the Yorkshire coast. A few hours later, four Par- 
liamentary ships came up, and opened fire on the village she occupied. 
Eleeing with her attendants to a ditch in the outskirts, she crouched 
there fur a time in concealment, until the Queen remembered she had 



ENGLAND. 21/ 

liament was constantly able to overcome him. Crom- 
well, who had put himself at the head of the Inde- 
pendents, saw that victory over such an antagonist 
in the field was certain, and would place the Government 
in his grasp. 

There was one other man in England who foresaw 
this. "Who is that sloven?" said Lord Digby, one 
da}^, to Hampden, pointing to a Member of the Com- 
mons. " That sloven," he replied, " will be the greatest 
man in England, if we ever come to a breach with the 
King, which God forbid." The sloven, Oliver Cromwell, 
and his cousin, John Hampden, had resolved on a 
breach with the doomed King, and they accomplished it. 

The attempt to obtain the command of the Militia 
proved that the Puritan leaders had resolved on civil 
war. This was so evident that the King decided to 
leave London, March, 1642, and prepare for the conflict. 
There was no standing army in England, and both 
sides were compelled to enroll troops. In June, Par- 
liament obtained money from the Corporation of 
London and other sources. In the same month, they 
voted " nine proposals " of reconciliation with the 
King, which required that all civil, military, and reli- 

left her pet lapdog behind. Heedless of the danger, she flew back, and 
brouglit oiF her favorite in her arms. A soldier was killed near her in 
the ditch, and her party were covered with earth by a ball striking the 
ground near them. On another occasion, when a Parliamentary ship 
was in chase of her, she commanded her captain not to strike, and, to 
the terror of all, bade him at the last extremity to blow up his vessel. 
During the campaign of 1644 she gave birth to her last child ; and a few- 
days later she was forced to escape in disguise, and wandered to Fal- 
muith, whence she embarked fur France, where her nephew, Louis XIV,, 
then reigned. She had many noble traits ; but, being a Catholic, she 
was hated by the Puritans and Presbyterians. She said once, " Though 
they hate me now, perhaps they will not always hate me ; and if they 
have any sentiments of honor, they will be ashamed of tormenting a 
poor woman who takes so little precaution to defend herself." 

10 



2l8 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

gioiis affairs should be placed in their hands. The 
King, then at York, rejected these indignantly, and an 
appeal to arms was the result. In July, Parliament 
voted an army. In August, the King raised his 
standard at Nottingham. The forces of Parliament 
amounted to 20,000 men, of which the Earl of Essex 
was made Commander-in-chief, and the Earl of Bedford 
second in command. The King's army numbered 
some 12,000 men, which he commanded in person. 
The first battle occurred in October, 1642, at Edgehill, 
and the issue was doubtful. 



OLIVEE CEOMWELL. 

Not long after this conflict the energy and prowess of 
Cromwell in the field became so conspicuous that his 
future distinction was a foregone conclusion. The pro- 
phecy of Hampden was daily becoming more probable. 
As Cromwell was destined to become from this period 
the prominent figure in English history for some 
years, it will be interesting to give a short sketch of 
his antecedents. 

This extraordinary man was born at Huntingdon, in 
1/599. His family was an old one, and claimed descent 
from the founder of the House of Stuart, which would 
have made him a relative of Charles I. Cromwell once 
remarked of himself, " I was by birth a gentleman, 
neither living in any considerable height nor yet in 
obscurity." 

His early life was boisterous. At seventeen he was 
sent to Cambridge University, but was more addicted 
to frolic than study. At twenty-one he married the 



ENGLAND. 219 

• 

daughter of Sir James Bourcbier. Soon after this he 
became a zealous Puritan, and prayed and preached 
with great fervor. Cromwell already comprehended 
that Puritanism was little else than Democracy in a 
reliofious disii'uise ; but to the last he concealed his 
ambition under copious quotations from Scripture. 

At twenty-nine he entered Parliament. He was again 
elected eleven years later, for the Short Parliament of 
1640, and was returned for the Long Parliament in the 
same year. At once he joined the Ultras, then known 
as " Eoot and Branch Men," and soon perceived that a 
storm was brewing, which he determined to guide to 
his own advantage. He spoke passionately when he 
rose in Parliament, but was not given to debate. He 
was an active party man, and during the first year of 
the Long Parliament figured on eighteen Committees, 
ardently promoting the most hostile measures to the 
King, and calmly awaiting the hour when Charles 
should stand at bay. The Lords and Commons, wholly 
intent on securing the supremacy of Parliament, were 
vastly elated at their repeated victories over the Crown, 
little foreseeing the day when both Parliament and 
Crown would vanish before the wand of the necromancer 
from Huntingdon. Cromwell may not have yet clearly 
seen that such a feat was possible, but the amazing skill 
of every step he took shows that his purpose was as 
fixed as his ambition was boundless. 

Before the Eoyal standard was unfurled, he de- 
spatched arms to Cambridgeshire, and, leaving London, 
began forming a troop. He gave the keenest atten- 
tion to discipline, but, with the instinct of genius, 
he felt that something more was necessary. In the 
Eoyal army, the "King's name was a tower of strength,'* 



220 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

and the principle of allegiance stimulated thousands to 
rise. Cromwell appealed to the religious passions then 
so strong, and by this means, as much as by his masterly 
generalship, achieved wonders. 

In the campaigns of 1643, '44, '45, Cromwell ac- 
quired great military renown. His daring strategy 
fascinated the army, and startled the Nation. 

Cromwell now felt strong enough to throw aside the 
Nobles and Middle Class who were still fighting as in 
centuries past against Absolute Monarchy. They merely 
aspired to Parliamentary Grovernment, and were wholly 
unconscious that they had been simply playing into 
Cromwell's hands. But these were not his only dupes. 
There was, besides, a small band of political enthu- 
siasts — Ludlow, Vane, Sidney, and Harrington — who 
threw themselves into the Parliamentary contest against 
Charles, hoping to foimd a Eepublic on the ruins of the 
Monarchy. It was the destiny of both these factions 
to hold the ladder by which Cromwell ascended, and 
to discover at last that they had been his tools. 

In 1645, Cromwell's prestige was so great that he 
began to display more boldness and less craft than 
hitherto. He declared one day in Parliament that the 
war would never end so long as Members of either 
House held commands in the civil or military ser- 
vice ; and a law was passed, the " Self-denying Ordi- 
nance," which disqualified Lords Essex, Manchester, and 
others, though Cromwell retained both his command 
and seat in the Commons by special permission. 
He next insisted that the army should be new-mo- 
delled; and Parliament ordered the three armies to 
be concentrated into one, and gave the command to 
Sir Thomas Fairfax, an instrument of Cromwell. By 



ENGLAND. 221 

these adroit measures Cromwell removed the Presby- 
terians or Moderates from his path, and secured the 
control of the army. 

The success of his military operations was as great 
as that of his Parliamentary intrigues. By a series of 
brilliant victories he crushed theEoyalists everywhere; 
and at last the defeat of Lord Astley, 1646, ended the 
English civil war. "You have done your work, my 
masters," exclaimed Astley to his victors, " and may go 
to play, unless you choose to fall out amongst your- 
selves." 

Cromwell was now the leading man in England. 
Parliament voted him a revenue of £2,500, and made 
him a Baron. 

The unfortunate King, in desperation, gave himself 
up to the Scotch army, who handed him over to Par- 
liament. 

The majority of Parliament was Presbyterian, and 
adhered to Monarchy. To get rid of them, Cromwell 
began a series of intrigues * as skilful as his tactics 

* The Presbyterian leaders, fully convinced that Cromwell entertained 

designs against Parliament, meant to order his arrest if proofs could be 
obtained. One day two officers informed them that Cromwell had 
declared that it would soon be necessary to purge the House of Com- 
mons. The two officers were brought before the House, who repeated 
the very language of Cromwell, who was then present. Perceiving his 
danger, and that a desperate effort alone could save him, Cromwell 
immediately fell on his knees, "wept bitterly, and with a vehemence of 
■words, sobs, and gestures that moved the whole assembly, he poured 
forth invocations and fervent prayers, calling every curse of the Lord on 
his head if any man in the kingdom was more faithful than he to the 
House. Then, rising, he spoke for more than two hours oi the Par- 
liament, the King, the army, of his enemies, of his friends, and of him- 
self; touching upon and mixing up all things ; humble and bold, prolix 
and impassioned ; particularly repeating that he was unjustly accused, 
compromised without reason." Cromwell so completely blinded the 
House by his wonderful dissimulation and matchless acting that the 
conclusion was general that he had been slandered. Too wise to risk 
another display of his powers of deception, he secretly abandoned 



222 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

in the field ; cunningly stirred up quarrels between the 
arm/ and Parliament ; and in the end marched into 
London, and reduced Parliament to obedience. Most 
of the Presbyterian leaders fled at his approach. A 
short time previously, by a secret order of Cromwell, a 
band of troopers had abducted the King from the 
residence assigned by Parliament. Cromwell was now 
master of Parliament and the King's person. - 

Fearing a bargain between Charles and his political 
enemies, he induced the King to go first to Hampton 
Court, and then to Carisbrook Castle, of which his 
nephew was Governor. The intended victim was now 
under lock and key. Cromwell at this time, 1647, must 
have seen his way to the Sovereign authority. The 
" Independents," his own party, controlled the House of 
Commons, and the army, which was quite devoted to 
him, was the only real power in the country. The 
King, though a prisoner, was a stumbling-block, and 
it was resolved to dispose of him. To compromise him 
as an obstacle to order. Parliament was instigated to 
involve him in disputes, which were abruptly terminated 
by a Vote declaring it High Treason to hold further 
communication with him. Insurrections in his behalf 
broke out in Wales, but were promptly suppressed ; 
and some Scotch Eoyalists who took up arms were 
quickly overpowered by Cromwell. 

Determined to remove the King, who barred his 
way, he expelled by force 160 Members of the Com- 
mons whom he feared to trust. This act is known in 

London on the very day this scene occurred, June 10th, 1647. He put 
himself at once at the head of the. army and threw off all disguise 
tow:irdsthe Prtsbyterians and the House, " for," as Guizot remarks, 
" it had now become impossible, even with his consummate hypocrisy, to 
preserve it any longer." 



ENGLAND. 22$ 

history as " Pride's Purge," from its being carried out 
by a body of soldiers under Colonel Pride. The fifty 
Members who remained were his passive tools, and 
readily voted to bring the King to trial. A High 
Court of Justice was improvised, and Charles was 
brought before it. He denied its jurisdiction, but 
was summarily sentenced to death. 

Charles had for months suffered contumely and ill- 
treatment, but his equanimity never forsook him. On 
his trial, his conduct was intrepid and dignified, but 
resigned.* Insults were heaped on him, to provoke 
some intemperate word or act. The soldiers were 
ordered to spit on him as he proceeded to the Court. 
He bore all without a murmur. He slept soundly the 
night before his execution, and died with sublime com- 
posure — January, 1649 — forgiving his enemies with his 
last breath. " I go from a corruptible to an incor- 
ruptible crown," exclaimed the unfortunate Monarch, 
as he laid his head on the block. Cromwell is said to 
have witnessed the scene from a window, and made 
merry over it ; but soon discovering the Nation was 
shocked at the decapitation of the King, he affected to 
consider it a sad necessity.! 

* Whpn the names of the Oouvt were read by the crier, that of Fairfax 
was called, when a voice among the spectators said, " He has more wit 
than to be here." When the indictment was read, " In the name of the 
people of England," the same voice exclaimed, "Not a tenth part of 
them." The disturber was ordered to be seized, and it turned out to be 
Lady Fairfax, wife of the Parliamentary General. She was, of course, 
released. A soldier was struck down by his officer for praying for the 
King. " The punishment exceeds the offence," exclaimed the compas- 
sionate Chai'les. 

t The following anecdote from Guizot's " History of the English 
Revolution" is strikingly characteristic of Cromwell's grim inspn>ibillty 
undtr the most tragical circumh.tances : "The body of the King was 
already enclosed in the coffin when Cromwell wished to see it ; he con- 
sidered it attentively, and, taking up the head in his hands, as if to make 
sure that it was severed from the body ; " This," he said, " was a well- 
constituted frame and promised a long life." 



224 ^^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

The House of Lords had now dwindled to a shadow. 
The Vote of the Commons for the King's trial had been 
rejected unanimously by the Lords, then only sixteen in 
number. This enraged Cromwell, and a week after 
the execution, the Commons, at his command, voted 
that the House of Lords was "useless, dangerous, and 
therefore abolished." 

The old Firm, as it may be called, of the Nobles and 
Middle Class, whose co-operation had given birth to 
liberty, and who had striven for five hundred years to 
preserve it, was now dissolved by force. A JNlilitary des- 
potism succeeded, which destroyed the ancient organi- 
zation of England, and ignored the rights and privileges 
of all alike. The upper, middle, and lower classes lost 
the protection of the old laws, and were at the mercy of 
an armed force in the hands of a man of genius, bent 
on his own aggrandisement. Of com'se the suspension 
of the Nation's vitality could only be temporary. The 
struggle of centuries against tyranny, whether of King 
or Usurper, was sure to be renewed, and Cromwell if 
not blinded by ambition must have foreseen this. 

After the King's death, a Council of State of thirty- 
eight members, with John Milton as Secretary, was 
organized as the Executiv^e Grovernment. This body 
was composed of Cromwell's partisans, and obeyed his 
wishes. 

Ireland was in arms for the Monarchy. The Council 
of State and the mock Parliament desired Cromwell, at 
his own suggestion, to take measures to reduce it to sub- 
mission. He embarked at once for that country, where 
his disciplined troops and fearless strategy overcame 
all resistance. He gave no quarter, and the wholesale 
massacres at Drogheda and Wexford struck all with 
terror. 



ENGLAND. 22$ 

He returned from Ireland— May, 1650 — to find that 
Scotland had proclaimed Charles II. King. He set out 
forthwith for the North. The contest in Scotland lasted 
over a year, and ended with the battle of Worcester, 
1651, where the Scots, under Charles II., were com- 
pletely routed. The young King, after numberless 
perils, escaped from England. " The numerous pri- 
soners were driven," says a contemporary, " like cattle 
to London, where many perished for want of food in 
the prisons, and the rest were sold as slaves to the 
Plantations." Cromwell was so elated by this victory 
that he proposed to knight some of his officers on the 
field, but abandoned this idea on being reminded that 
Knighting was a Eoyal usage. 

The three Kingdoms now lay at his feet, and Crom- 
well, conscious that he was the sole depositary of Abso- 
lute Power, became more imperious in manner, and dealt 
less in that extraordinary dissimulation and religious 
cant which all the writers of the time have described. 
Though the Executive and Legislative power was in his 
hands, for the Council Oi State and the Commons were 
composed of his dependents, still he was embarrassed. 
It would have been better if he had carried out his 
darling project at once, and assumed the Crown ; but 
he dreaded the opposition of his officers, who professed 
Eepublicanism, and, above all, the ridicule of the Nation. 
For eighteen months he coquetted and intrigued with 
his political and military allies as to the form of the 
Government and his own position. 

At last his hesitationled to insubordination amongst 
his creatures in the Commons, the Independents ; but 
he put a sudden end to the growing discontent, in 
April, 1653, by going down to the House one day with 

i«o * p 



226 AN HIS TORICA L RE TROSPE C T. 

a regiment of soldiers ; and after vilifying the members 
in violent language, he turned them all into the street 
and locked the doors.* It was rough treatment for the 
men who pretended to represent " the people of 
England," and who had voted the King's death and the 
abolition of the House of Lords at his bidding. This 
decided act of despotism, however, was applauded, for 
this paltry remnant of the Long Parliament was so 
steeped in crime that its overthrow by the man who 
had prostituted it was considered just retribution. 

Thus the war begun in 1642 by Parliament seeking 
to become absolute over the King, ended in the disap- 
pearance of both Parliament and King. King, Lords, 
and Commons — all were gone. Nothing was now left 
but Oliver Cromwell at the head of his army. Since 
William the Conqueror, no King had wielded a power 
so unmasked, so absolute. With extraordinary genius 
he had played one faction against the other till all were 
overthrown. 
. Yet Cromwell knew that the Nation would not tamely 
submit to such unmitigated despotism. He desired to 
retain his omnipotence, but felt it necessary to conceal 

* Hearing that the Commons -vrere not disposed to dissolve, as he 
desired, Cromwell went down to the House with a body of soldiers, 
whom he placed at the door. Then entering, he sat down for a time, 
when, suddenly starting up, he loaded the members with the vilest 
reproaches for their tyranny, oppression, and robberies. Then, stamping 
his foot, a signal for the soldiers to enter, "For shame," he cried, "get 
you gone ; you are no longer a Parliament. The Lord has done with 
you ; he has chosen other instruments for carrying on his work." 
Taking hold of Martin by the cloak, he exclaimed, " Thou art a whore- 
master." Then toanother, " Thou art an adulterer." To another, "And 
thou an extortioner." Toafoui'th, " Thou art a drunkard and a glutton." 
He commanded a soldier to seize the mace. " What sliall we do with 
this bauble?" he said. "Take it away." Ordering the soldiers to clear 
the House, he went out the last, directing the doors to be locked. Sir 
Harry Vane protested. "0 Sir Harry Vane!" cried Cromwell; "the 
Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane ! " 



ENGLAND. 22/ 

it under the forms and usages so long established. 
Accordingly, he» determined to call another House of 
Commons, but took care to fill it with his retainers. It 
consisted of 156 Members, and met in July, 1653. It 
was composed of men of the lowest condition, the "very 
dregs of the fanatics," remarks Hume, and was nick- 
named the " Barebones Parliament," after one of its 
conspicuous Members, Barebone, a leather-dresser. It 
was the policy of Cromwell to employ as his military and 
political agents individuals of low condition, for they 
readily carried out his illegal acts, whilst men ol capa- 
city would have refused.* The Barebones Parliament 
soon fell into ridicule as Cromwell intended ; and upon 
his hint a majority of its Members, with the Speaker, 
came to him one day with their resignations. Hearing 
that some of the minority were not willing to depart, 
he sent one of his Colonels with a party of soldiers to 
disperse them. " What are you doing here?" asked 
Colonel White. " We are seeking the Lord," responded 
the recalcitrants. " Then you may go elsewhere,'* 
returned the Colonel, " for to my certain knowledge he 
has not been here these many years." 

Having brought Parliamentary Grovernment into con- 
tempt, which was his object, Cromwell thought the 
time had come to throw aside disguise, and make him- 



* Buckle givps the following account of the original vocations of Crom- 
•well's cfficers. Colonel Pride, who expelled a part of the Commons, known 
as "Pride's Purge," was a drayman; Admiral Deane, a servant; General 
Whalley, an apprentice to a draper; Colonel Groife, ditto ; Skippon, 
commander-in-chief in Ireland, a private soldier. Berkstead, a pedlar, 
and Selway, apprentice to a grocer, were Councillors or State; as also 
Berners, a servant, and Holland, a link-boy, Bond, a draper, Colonel 
Okey, a stoker, Colonel Horton, a servant, Colonel Hooper, a haber- 
dasher. Major Rolfe, a cobbler. Colonel Pox, a tinker, Colonel Hewson, 
a cobbler, Colonel Jones, brother-in-law of Cromwell, a servant, &c. (S:c. 

p 2 



228 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPE C T. 

self the avowed Head of the State. A Council of liis 
officers drew up what was called " The Instrument of 
Government," a sort of charter by which Cromwell was to 
be the supreme magistrate under the title of Protector. 
He was to nominate to all places, and to have the 
right to make peace or war, and alliances. A Council 
of State of not less than thirteen persons was created to 
cooperate with him. A Parliament was to be summoned 
by him every three years, to sit for five months. A 
standing army ivas to he maintained under the sole 
control of the Protector, This new political contrivance 
concentrated all authority in Cromwell, and was of 
course designed by himself. It was sworn to by his 
officers, and the Protector was installed in office, 
December, 1653. He appointed fifteen of his adherents 
to the Council. The Parliament was to meet in Sep- 
tember, 1654. 

If the Lords and Commons of 1640 — the Nobles and 
Middle Class — had foreseen the revival of such perfect 
Absolutism as this, far beyond that which roused their 
ancestors against King John, they would have rested on 
the vast concessions of the pliant Charles, and avoided 
the civil war, with its crimes and miseries. Cromwell 
taught the Politicians of his time a lesson not likely 
to be ever forgotten. 

His Highness the Lord Protector, as he was now 
called, promptly restored Monarchical usages. He 
received the foreign Ambassadors seated in a gorgeous 
chair of State. All the Eoyal palaces were fitted up 
with magnificence for his residence. He gave sumptuous 
banquets, and attired himself in robes of State.* The 

* Seven tables were daily set at Whitehall, as follows :— A table for 
His Highness, a table for Her Highness the Protectoress, a table for 



ENGLAND. 



229 



country, exhausted by eleven years of war and turmoil, 
accepted Cromwell's despotism with resignation. The 
bulk of the people, however, remained Eo} alist. The 
Presbyterians as well as his former allies the Indepen- 
dents equally hated Cromwell, but were powerless. 

The Parliament proposed by the Protector was to 
consist of 400 Members for England, 30 for Scotland, 
and 30 for Ireland. All the lower class was excluded 
from the franchise, as an estate of £200 a year was 
necessary to a vote. All Eoyalists were also excluded. 
The elections were conducted with freedom, as Cromwell 
was anxious to know the sentiments of the country. 
This Parliament met in September, 1654, and lost no 
time in denouncing the new Government. Bradshaw, 
who sentenced the King, was now chiei of the Opposition. 
Cromwell, losing his patience, locked the Members out 
of the House, and allowed none to return without 
signing a document declaring that his Government was 
legal. Two-thirds gave their signatures, but continued 
their opposition, till Cromwell in a rage dissolved the 
Parliament. 

This experiment proved that the Protector could 
only maintain himself by force. He divided England 
into twelve military districts, appointing a General to 
the command of each with unlimited authority. " Never, 
before nor since," says an historian, "has England known 
so iron a rule." 

Cromwell's foreign policy was bold, successful, but 
impolitic. He carried on a victorious war against 
Holland ; cultivated the French alliance ; and made war 
on Spain, seizing the Island of Jamaica. He was 

chaplains and strangers, a table for stewards and gentlemen, a table for 
the gentlemen, two other tables for upper and lower servants. 



230 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

ably assisted in his wars by Admiral Blake, though 
tliat officer had no love for the Protector. " It is our 
duty," Blake said, " to fight for our country." 

His administration at home was skilful and vigilant. 
He promoted good men to tlie bench, and showed a 
cautious lenity to the various religious denominations. 
Scotland and Ireland he treated as conquered provinces. 

Hoping that success abroad and tranquillity at home 
had popularized his Government, he summoned another 
Parliament in September, 1656. He used every influence 
to secure the return of his partisans, but found, to his 
chagrin, the majority against him. Without hesitation 
he set a guard at the doors of the House, and excluded 
all who would not sustain his acts. Finding that the 
Grenerals he had set up as Pachas over the military 
districts were growing dangerous, he adroitly got the 
Parliament to censure them, and they were removed. 

And now he attempted to scale the last round of the 
ladder he had so skilfully mounted, and to clutch the 
prize he had so ardently pursued. His heart was set 
upon the Crown, and he fondly hoped that by obtaining 
it he would consolidate his power. The Assembly he 
had packed with his adherents gladly complied with 
his secret yearnings, and voted him the title of King in 
April, 1657. To his dismay, a furious opposition broke 
out. His Generals, one and all, denounced the project, 
Lambert ; Fleetwood, his son-in-law ; Desborougli, his 
brother-in-law, threatened to resign their commissions. 
Colonel Pride, the " Purger," got up a Protest against 
Cromwell's attempt to restore the throne, which was 
signed by all the officers in London ; and mutiny began 
to spread rapidly through the army, which was the 
Protector's chief support. Cromwell, after " the agony 



ENGLAND. 23 1 

and perplexity of long doubt," says Hume, was compelled 
to refuse the darling object of bis ambition. For the 
first time he suffered a galling- defeat In his wrath 
he dismissed Lambert and all the officers who had 
opposed his ambitious design ; and consoled himself by 
getting his obedient Legislature to vote a new charter, 
called " A Humble Advice and Petition," by which he 
had the right to nominate his successor, and, further- 
more, to create a House of Lords for life. 

After this remodelling of the Grovernment, Cromwell 
was again inaugurated as Lord Protector with great 
pomp, and the Parliament was adjourned. He then 
called many of the old Nobility to the new House of 
Peers, but they refused to attend, and he was forced to 
compose it of such materials as he could find. In 1658, 
he summoned his new Parliament of two Houses. The 
Upper consisted of some 60 persons. To his chagrin 
he found the majority in the Lower House, lately so 
submissive, now decidedly refractory. Grreatly incensed, 
he dismissed them in fifteen days. 

In spite of his marvellous success, in spite of the 
prodigies his genius had accomplished, Cromwell could 
no longer blind himself to the fact that the Nation he 
had enslaved would submit only whilst force compelled 
it. The upper, middle, and lower classes longed for 
the hour of emancipation. Ambition had blinded him, 
else he might have known that a people who were 
the first in the world to organize a Kepresentative 
Grovernment would never again endure the tyranny of 
any man, however gifted, hov/ever successful. 

The last year of his life was a bitter expiation 
for all his greatness. The army, his only prop, was 
filled with disaffection. He knew not at what moment 



232 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

it might liurl him from his high estate. Surrounded 
by treacherous friends or secret enemies, he found not 
even in the bosom of his family sympathy or support. 
His favorite child, Mrs. Claypole, on her death- bed 
reproached him so keenly for his many sanguinary 
crimes as to fill him with melancholy, if not remorse. 
The dread of assassination haunted him day and night. 
He wore armor under his clothes, and was always pro- 
vided with sword and pistols. He never moved with- 
out guards ; never returned by the road he went, and 
travelled at a furious gallop ; never slept twice in the 
same room, nor without sentinels at every door. He 
employed a legion of spies, and fifteen conspiracies 
were detected. All his arts and policy exhausted — 
treacherous to every party and false to every friend — 
corroded by care and preyed on by disease — he 
still recoiled from death with singular timidity. He 
fainted when his physicians announced his malady 
mortal, and, recovering, declared their statement false. 
" I tell you," he exclaimed, " I tell you I shall not die 
of this distemper ; I am well assured of my recovery." 
His illness lasted but a week. The night before his 
death he frequently uttered exclamations that showed 
the torment of his mind. " Truly, God is good. In- 
deed he is, he will not " — here his voice failed him. 
At times he would denounce himself, and then again 
would express dread of the obloquy the world might cast 
on him. What a contrast to the placid end of his victim, 
Charles ! After violent paroxysms, Cromwell expired, 
September 3d, 1658, in his fifty-ninth year. 

In this concise sketch of his life many singular 
traits of this remarkable man have been omitted. His 
love of buffoonery has often been noticed, but this wa.«J 



ENGLAND. 



233 



only an artifice to hide some politic purpose. For 
instance, he held a consultation with a band of his 
trusted adherents after the King's execution as to the 
future form of Grovernment. After all had spoken, to 
avoid giving his own views, he suddenly threw a cushion 
at the head of General Ludlow, and ran away. Again, 
when he signed the death-warrant of Charles, he 
smeared the face of Martin who sat next to him with 
ink, and the latter, when he signed, practised the same 
joke on Cromwell. His object in this was to make 
light of a tragical event. With all his grimness, he 
was not deficient in humor. One day, at Hampton 
Com-t, a corkscrew dropped from his hand as he was 
opening a bottle of wine. His Courtiers and Generals 
at dinner threw themselves on the floor to recover it, 
when Cromwell burst into laughter. " If any fool," he 
said, " were now to look in upon your posture, he would 
say you were seeking the Lord, whilst you are only 
seeking a corkscrew.'' Austere as he was reputed to 
be, he was not above temptation. His intrigues with 
the beautiful Lady Dysart are incontestable ; and she is 
said to have saved her husband's head, after the battle 
of Worcester, by submitting to Cromwell's familiarities. 
No public man ever excelled Cromwell in dissimulation ; 
and the religious cant so universal in his epoch enabled 
him to veil his meaning in such exo^^uisite jargon as 
to defy comprehension. In a note will be found a 
sample.* 



* The following is Cromwell's speech to the Committee of the Commons, 
■when they waited on him with a tender of the Crown. He dared not 
openly accept it, yet shrank from refusing it. To avoid either, and gain 
time, was the secret of the rigmarole he spoke, and which, in its way, is 
a masterpiece. "I confess, for it behoves me to deal plainly with you, 
I must confess, I would say, I hope, I may be understood in this; for 



234 A^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

It is useless to dwell on the numberless private 
executions and "wliolesale slaughters that disfigured his 
rise to power. Literally he waded through rivers of 
blood to satisfy his ambition. Take him all in all, he 
is the most extraordinary man that has figured in 
English history. Gruizot, who has analyzed the career 
of Cromwell with equal felicity and impartiality, remarks 
that " Providence rarely bestows on the same man the 
'double power to destroy and create ; but it seems to 
have bestowed on Cromwell these two opposite gifts, 
for no sooner was the Eevolution completed than the 
Dictatorship was organized," 

Eichard, eldest son of the late Protector, was pro- 
claimed by the Council of War as his successor the 
day after his father's death. He accepted reluctantly a 
position for which he was unfitted from his mild character 
and ignorance of public affairs. 

indeed I mnst be tender what I say to such an audience as this; I say I 
would be understood, that in this argument 1 do not make parallel 
betwixt men of a different mind and a Parliament which shall have 
their desires. I know there is no comparison, nor can it be urged upon 
me that my words have the least color that way, because the Parliament 
seems to give liberty to me to say anything to you. as that, that is a 
tender of my humble reasons and judgment and opinion to them; and 
if I think they are such, and will be such to them, and are faith'ul 
servants, and will be so to the supreme authority, and the legislative, 
wheresoever it is : if, I say, I should not tell you ; knowing their minds 
to be so, I should not be iaithful, if I should not tell you so, to the end 
you may report it to the Parliament. I shall say something for myself, 
for my own mind, I do profess it, I am not a man scrupulous about 
words or names of such things I have not: hut as I have the AVord of 
God, and I hope I shall ever have it, for the rule of my conscience, for 
my informations ; so truly men that have been led in dark paths, 
through the providence and dispensation of God ; w'hy, surel}^ it is not 
to be objected to a man; for who can love to walk in the dark? But 
Providence does so dispose. And though a man may impute his own folly 
and blindness to Providence sinfully, yet it must be at my peril; the case 
may be that it is the Providence ot God that doth lead men in darkness; 
I must needs say, that I have had a greut deal of experience of Pro- 
vidence, and though it is no rule without or against the Word, yet it is 
a very good expositor of the "Word in many cases." 



ENGLAND. > 235 

Cromwell's death left his authority in the hands of 
the army. The influential Grenerals whom the late 
Protector had dismissed — Lambert, Ludlow, &c. — 
promptly reappeared, in the hope of supplanting the 
incompetent Eichard. To escape this danger, he called 
a new Parliament in January, 1659 ; but perplexed by 
the situation, it wasted time in idle debates. Dread- 
ing the cabals of the conspiring Generals, they voted 
that there should be no Councils of Officers without the 
consent of the Protector. This act of hostility enraged 
the Grenerals, and they insisted with threats, that 
Eichard should dissolve the Parliament. He did so, 
but immediately resigned the Protectorship in April, 
1659 — only seven months after he had assumed it. 

England was now without a Grovernment. Divided 
amongst themselves, the Grenerals agreed to call to- 
gether the remains of the Long Parliament formerly 
dispersed by Cromwell. This Assembly, known as the 
'' Eump Parliament," met in December, 1659, and 
was composed of the party called " Independents," of 
which Cromwell was formerly the chief. When he 
expelled the Presbyterians — 166 Members — from the 
House, it was the Lidependents who, at his instiga- 
tion, voted the King's trial. The country regarded the 
return of these violent fanatics to power with alarm and 
disgust. Undismayed they set vigorously to work; 
appointed a Council of State of their own adherents, 
and undertook to bring the Grenerals under control. 
Partial insurrections broke out in different parts of the 
country, and the " Eump " were compelled to call on 
the army for protection. Lambert marched into Wales, 
and suppressed the rising there; and, on his return, 
organized a Military Council, to be independent of the 



236 AN Historical retrospect, 

"Eump." Grreatly startled by this measure, they 
promptly cashiered Lambert and his nominees. Lam- 
bert, adopting the tactics of his old master, marched 
into London, and turned the " Rump" into the street. 
A " Committee of Safety " was then organized, consist- 
ing of twenty-three persons. England thus fell into 
the hands of a military faction, and was on the verge 
of dissolution. Payment of taxes was generally 
refused. All classes were filled with apprehension. 
The Nobility and Middle Class dreaded loss of life and 
property ; the People trembled at the perils in store for 
them. 

At this juncture the eyes of the Nation were suddenly 
concentrated on General Monk, whom Cromwell had 
left in command of Scotland. This sagacious man 
comprehended the situation. He saw when Richard 
Cromwell retired that anarchy was inevitable unless 
the ancient Grovernment were restored. This was im- 
possible whilst an army of mercenaries, commanded by 
unscrupulous men, held the country in subjection. His 
force consisted of 6,000 men, whilst the army in 
England exceeded 30,000. It was, therefore, his 
interest to avoid a collision which would expose the 
country to unknown disasters. Silent and impenetrable, 
he waited the moment for action. When Lambert ex- 
pelled the " Rump " Parliament, he protested, and 
began his march to London. This induced other 
Generals, jealous of Lambert, to side with the Parlia- 
ment. As Monk advanced all classes hailed him as a 
deliverer, but to none would he disclose his purpose. 
Many suspected that he aspired like Cromwell to the 
supreme authority. Lambert alarmed left London to 
confront him. " The Rump " taking advantage of 



ENGLAND. 23/ 

this reassembled, and sent a deputation to Monk, 
■who gave them no explanation. They next sent orders 
to the troops with Lambert to return to the quarters 
assigned. The troops obe3^ed, abandoning Lambert to a 
man, and Monk entered London without conflict. 

After coquetting awhile with the " Eump," he de- 
manded that the 160 Members who had been driven out 
by Cromwell should take their seats, and they did so 
without opposition. This left the Independents in a 
minority, and was the end of that violent faction whicli 
under the lead of Cromwell had overthrown the old Con- 
stitution of King and Parliament, and which was in its 
turn suppressed by that crafty Politician for his own 
aggrandizement. The majority of Parliament again con- 
sisted of the Presbyterian party which had begun the 
collision with the unhappy Charles, and whose object was 
simply, as previously stated, the ascendency of Parliament- 
ary Grovernment. They discovered too late that they had 
provoked a Revolution they could not arrest,and expiated 
their folly when trampled under the feet of Cromwell and 
the Independents. Conscious that England owed to 
them the loss of her ancient liberties, and the miseries 
of the civil war, they readily obeyed the desire of 
Monk and the demand of the Nation to dissolve them- 
selves, after summoning a free Parliament to decide on 
the destinies of England. This was the last act of 
the Long Parliament of 1640, Avhich, as described, was 
alike the parent of the civil war and Cromwell's Protec- 
torate. A Council of State composed of " men of 
character and moderation" administered the Govern- 
ment in the interval. 

An explosion of pent-up enthusiasm for the old in- 
stitutions now shook the land like a volcano from one 



238 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

end to the other. The elections filled the House of 
Commons with men pledged to the restoration oi the 
throne, and the ancient Nobility forthwith returned to 
their seats in Parliament. The Nobles and the Middle 
Class resumed once more their co-partnership of cen- 
turies, temporarily broken up by a successful soldier 
whose advent their own indiscretion had provoked. 
They were still resolved on a due limitation of the 
power of the Crown ; but, enlightened by misfortune, 
they were equally resolved to avoid the errors that had 
entailed such dire calamities. 

The Commons had no sooner assembled than Monk 
announced that an Ambassador from the King was at 
their door with a letter from His Majesty. The Ambas- 
sador was admitted to the House, and the letter ot the 
King read, which offered a general amnesty and liberty 
of conscience. The wildest acclamations resounded 
on all sides, and were re-echoed by the whole country 
as the news spread abroad The King was solemnly 
proclaimed at different points of London in presence 
of both Houses ; and Committees from the Lords and 
Commons were sent to Holland to invite Charles to 
return to his vacant throne. The King entered London, 
May 29th, 1660, amid universal enthusiasm. From 
Dover where he landed, his way to the metropolis was 
lined with thousands of people who rent the air with 
cries of joy. Charles expressed his wonder and delight, 
whilst all marvelled at the utter disappearance of the 
faction which had so recently tyrannized over the 
land. 



THE EESTOEATION. 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 

Charles II. was just thirty when his reign began. 
Guizot remarks that " Charles II. recovered his throne 
without foreign aid or domestic struggle, and even 
without the assistance of the Royalists, by the sponta- 
neous impulse of the nation, who were thus delivered 
from oppression, anarchy, and revolutionary fluctuations, 
and only expected at the hands of the King order and 
stability." This is perfectly true, for all classes had 
suffered so much materially and morally from twenty 
years of political and religious agitation, and civil war, 
that all yearned for repose, and all believed it was to 
be found only in the restoration of their old institutions 
of King, Lords, and Commons. 

If Charles II. had been an ambitious man, it would 
have been easy to restore the Eoyal power to some- 
thing like the vigor it possessed under Elizabeth ; but 
he was of a tolerant nature, a sound understanding, 
and an amiable disposition. Besides, the sad fate 
of his father and his own misfortunes indisposed him 
for conflicts which might have ended in another civil 
war and his own dethronement. As he showed no 
desire to strain his authority, the Nobles and Middle 
Class gave their attention to practical reforms, of the 
most salutary character. Buckle remarks that " during 



240 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

the reign of Charles II. more steps were taken in the 
right direction than had been taken in any period of 
equal length during the twelve centuries we had occu- 
pied the soil of Britain." It was called by Fox " the 
era of good laws and bad government." 

The prudent conduct of the King gave no cause for 
political dissensions, but the Church of England, which 
was restored with the Monarchy, exhibited less modera- 
tion. Having suffered so much persecution under the 
regime of the Presbyterians and tJie Independents, the 
Church was eager to take revenge on both these bodies 
of Dissenters. But neither the Nation nor the King 
sympathized with their zeal for Protestantism. So 
ridiculous and criminal had been the excesses of 
fanaticism during the reign of the Independents, so 
disgusted were all classes with the cant and sanctified 
hypocrisy that prevailed under Cromwell's Government, 
that a reaction bordering on scepticism had ensued, and 
most persons, high and low, felt an utter indifierence 
to the quarrels amongst the Clergy of whatever denomi- 
nation. As for Charles himself, he was a Freethinker 
much more than a Protestant or Catholic, and openly 
professed an admiration of Hobbes, the Materialist, who 
was cordially hated by the Clergy. All the great in- 
tellects of this epoch were likewise impregnated with 
disbelief. Locke was an Unitarian, Newton a Socinian, 
Milton an Arian. 

To this sceptical condition of the public mind must 
be ascribed the various schemes resorted to by the 
Ecclesiastics and Politicians to dissipate the political 
and religious lethargy prevailing. In this way may 
be explained one of the strangest events of this reign. 
The " Popish plot to assassinate the King " can be 
regarded only as an invention to stir up the i^rejudices 



ENGLAND. 24 1 

of the country against the Catholics, and so bring about 
a religious revival. The King, on his part, never for a 
moment believed in the conspiracy ; but such was the 
number of false witnesses suborned — Titus Gates amongst 
the rest — that the smouldering hatred of Papacy was 
rekindled, and before it was extinguished a number of 
innocent lives both noble and plebeian were ruthlessly 
sacrificed.* 

The Politicians worked zealously to utilize the Anti- 
Catholic fury, and to carry out their ambitious projects. 
Lord Eussell, Algernon Sydney, and others united in 
bringing a Bill into the Commons to exclude James 
brother of the King from the throne, as he was a known 
Papist. The Bill being rejected by the Lords, these 
disappointed men entered into a conspiracy to incite an 
insurrection which would have entailed on England the 
horrors of another civil war. The Duke of Monmouth, 
a natural son of Charles, was at the head of this con- 
spiracy, and aimed at the succession to his father. Lord 
Eussell did not seek to overturn the Monarchy, but 
was ready to employ this odious means to redress what 
he considered grievances. Algernon Sydney, a son of 
the Earl of Leicester, aspired to found a Eepublic. 
Lord Shaftesbury, an unscrupulous Politician, fomented 
actively this wanton plot. 

* The aged Viscount Stafford, a Catholic not)T&, was accused of 
conspiring to raise a Papal army to subdue England. This absurd 
accusation was sustained by false witnesses, whose statements were 
disproved, yet the House of Lords, under pressure of the mania pre- 
vailing, condemned him to death. The King commuted the sentence 
of " hanging and quartering " to that of decapitation, an exercise 
of prerogative which Lord Eussell, in the House of Commons, called in 
question. The infirm old man on the scaffold protested his innocence 
in language so firm and pathetic that the populace forgot their insHue 
delusions, and melted into tears. They shouted repeatedly, "We 
believe you, my lord; God bless you, my lord!" The executioner was 
so much aifected that twice he lifted the axe, and it was only on the 
third attempt that the head was severed from the body. 

11 Q 



242 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

In spite of the Anti-Popery frenzy that had been 
aroused by such detestable means, the Nation v/as not at 
all disposed to rush into another civil war. They knew 
the King was not tyrannical whatever might be his other 
faults, and they were not so easily duped by the Politi- 
cians as the last generation had been. Thus the con- 
spirators were obliged to postpone the intended rising 
till all was discovered in June, 1683. Hume remarks 
that, " the whole gang of spies, witnesses, informers, and 
suborners who had so long been supported and en- 
couraged by the leading patriots now turned short upon 
their old patrons, and offered their services to the 
Government." To escape arrest many fled. Mon- 
mouth absconded. Lord Russell was seized and sent 
to the Tower, as were also Lord Essex, Sydney, and 
others. Many of the conspirators confessed all ; 
and it was made evident that a plan of insurrection 
had been fidly settled, and that the assassination of the 
King was intended. 

Lord Russell was tried by a jury " of men of fair and 
reputable characters." He did not deny his share in the 
projected insurrection, but declared that he harbored 
no design against the life of the King. He was found 
guilty, and condemned to death. The King commuted 
the legal sentence of " hanging and quartering," 
saying, "Lord Russell shall find that I am possessed of 
that prerogative which, in the case of Lord Stafford, 
he thought proper to deny me." Grreat exertions were 
made to save Russell's life. The Earl of Bedford, his 
father, offered £100,000 to the Duchess of Portsmouth, 
who had great influence with the King, but in vain. 
As several of the inferior agents of the conspiracy had 
been executed, the King was not disposed to interfere 



ENGLAND. 243 

with the law to save those who had originated the plot, 
however lofty in rank or strong in connections. No 
one questioned the justice of Lord Russell's sentence, 
but many regretted that a man with so many noble 
traits had allowed his ambition to seduce him into a 
plot which, if carried out, would have involved a fear- 
ful sacrifice of life. Nothing could prove more clearly 
the wanton folly of resorting to violence to redress the 
grievances Lord Russell complained of than the events 
which ensued in the reign that shortly followed ; for 
the infatuation of James II. was punished without 
resorting to a bloody revolution. 

Algernon Sydney was another of the band of noble 
conspirators. He had fought against Charles I. ; then 
denounced the usurpation of Cromwell ; and, on the 
return of Charles II., had retired to the continent, 
refusing the Act of Amnesty. After some years he 
solicited the King's pardon, and obtained it though 
his name figured on the list of the Judges of Charles I. 
He was enthusiastic for a Republic on the ancient 
model, and was even willing, says Hume, " to seek a 
second time through all the horrors of civil war for his 
adored Utopia." Like Russell he was tried by a jury ; 
like him he did not deny his guilt, and was condemned 
and executed. 

Another prominent incident of this reign was the rise 
of the two great political parties which have so long 
conducted the public business of England. There can 
be no more positive proof of the great change in the 
condition of the country than the advent of these two 
parties. It was not until the power of the Church and 
the Monarchy had been overcome by the alliance of 
the Nobles and the Middle Class so often mentioned, 

Q 2 



244 ^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

that the existence of these parties became possible. 
They were composed of men whose position was wholly 
different from the Statesmen who had abounded at all 
epochs in modern Europe, and wlio were simply the 
agents of Royal authority commissioned to manage the 
business of the State. Nor did they at all resemble 
the public men of ancient Europe, who often aspired 
to the Sovereign power ; for in Greece, as in Eome 
during the Consulship, they contended with each other 
for the supreme magistracy. It was reserved for 
England, in the seventeenth century, to develop a 
political sect hitherto unknown. The Church and 
Monarchy being stripped of that monopoly of power 
which they had jointly wielded in previous centuries, it 
fell into the hands of the Nation itself ; and then arose a 
new category of public men who aspired, in the name 
of their views or principles, to act as Trustees of the 
National Will. 

This new breed of Politicians arrayed themselves in 
opposite camps — those who considered further innova- 
tion dangerous, and those who persisted in new modifi- 
cations. The first were content with the conquests 
achieved over Church and King; but the latter de- 
manded more. These antagonistic opinions were 
professed in the time of Charles II. by two contending 
parties, who were then christened Tory and Whig. 

This was the real distinction between these two sets 
of rival Politicians, though at the time they seemed 
merely to differ on the expediency of excluding James, 
brother of the King, from succeeding to the throne on 
account of his religion. The Whigs, who professed to 
be the popular or patriotic party, denounced James as 
H Catholic, which was consistent, as they were the 



ENGLAND, 245 

authors of the furious crusade against the Catholics 
that ended in so many executions. They likewise 
excluded by the Test Act, of which they were the 
framers, all Protestants from Parliament and office who 
dissented from the Church of England. This Act of 
the Whig leaders remained unrepealed till the reign 
of George IV. Charles and the Tory party resisted 
this oppression of the Catholics and Dissenters ; but the 
popular rage excited by the Whigs against Popery ran 
so high that the King as usual gave way and signed 
the Test Act, 

It will thus be seen that the Whig, or so-called 
patriotic party, blundered fearfully at the start. They 
first robbed their Catholic and Protestant fellow- 
countrymen of their equal rights, because they dis- 
sented from the National Church. They next sought 
to throw the country into a Ee volution, because they 
failed by legal means to obtain control of the Go- 
vernment. Such, beyond question, were the motives 
of Eussell, Essex, and Sydney. The disrepute into 
which the party fell shows how hateful such designs 
were to the Nation at large ; for the Whig party, after 
the discovery of the plot against the King, was 
completely overthrown. " This mighty faction," says 
Hume, " which has shaken the throne and menaced 
the royal family, was totally subdued, and by their 
precipitate indiscretion exposed themselves to the rigor 
of the law and to public hatred.'' 

From that day to this political leaders whether 
Tory or Whig, Conservative or Liberal, have gone on 
amicably struggling for the Trusteeship of that power 
which no longer rests in the hands of a Church or a 
Monarch, but in those of the Nation. The mistakes of 



245 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

the AYhig Politicians of the time of Charles II. have 
never been repeated: argument, and not force, is relied 
on as the only passport to political power. 

After this summary of the principal incidents of this 
reign, it is unnecessary to enter into many details. 
The first Parliament of Charles II. met in April, 1660, 
and so overflowed with loyalty that the King would 
have been sustained in any abuse of his power. He 
made " the most eminent men of the nation, whether 
Eoyalists or Presbyterians, his Ministers," says Rowland. 
Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, was 
selected as Prime Minister.* The second Parliament, 
quite as loyal, assembled in May, 1661, and was not 
dissolved for nearly seventeen years. The third Parlia- 
ment assembled in March, 1678. Two other Houses of 
Commons, elected in 1680 and 1681, being under Whig 
influence, were refractory, but still in the main loyal. 

A large number of highly beneficial laws were passed 
during this reign, diminishing the privileges of the 
Clergy and Nobility, and giving additional guarantees 
to the liberty of the subject. The right of the People 
to be taxed solely by their Representatives in the 
Commons was settled at this time, it being enacted 
that all money Bills should originate in the Lower 
House. The Feudal System imported by the Kormans 
was wholly abolished ; and thus was closed finally in 
England the regime of the Middle Ages. New laws 
regulating the liberty of Printing were also passed. It 
is to this reign also that England owes the Habeas 
Corpus AcU The writ of Habeas Corpus, which 

* This able Minister and upright man became, from various causes, so 
unpopular that he was stripped of power in 1667, and banished by Act of 
Parliament. He wrote in his retirement, " The History of the English 
Kebellion." 



ENGLAND. 247 

requires that cause shall be promptly shown for depriving- 
any subject of his liberty, and which was intended to 
prevent arbitrary imprisonment, originated with the 
" Writ of Inquisition " in Magna Charta^ and was 
enlarged by statutes in the reign of Edward III. 
— 1327-77. This law, so ancient in its origin and so 
necessary a safeguard of individual liberty, was not 
finally and indisputably settled until the twenty-eighth 
year, 1679, of Charles II.'s reign.* 

Charles II. died in February, 1685. In spite of the 
events of the war with the Dutch, and the cry raised 
against him that he had sold himself to Louis XIV., 
Charles was immensely popular at his death. Hume 
in describing him says : " Far from being stately or 
reserved, he had not a grain of pride or vanity in his 
composition, but was the most affable, best-bred man 
alive. He treated his subjects like noblemen, like 
gentlemen, like freemen ; not like vassals or boors. . . 
Upon the whole, it appeared to many cruel, and even 
iniquitous, to remark too rigorously the failings of a 
Prince who discovered so much facility in correcting 
his errors, and so much lenity in pardoning the offences 
committed against himself." 

Charles II. was unfortunate in his marriage with a 
Portuguese Princess — May, 1662. She was unattractive 
in person, and proved to be sterile. This, doubtless, 
encouraged Charles in those habits of libertinism which 
became so prevalent after the rigid austerity of the 

* The well-known statesman Charles James Fox spoke of the Habeas 
Corpus Act " as the most important barrier against tyranny, and best 
framed for the liberty of individuals, that has ever existed in any ancient 
or modern commonwealth." Sir James Mackintosh declared " the writ 
of Habeas Corpusi and trial by jury to be the most effectual securities 
itgainst oppression which the wisdom of man has hitherto been able to 
devise." 



248 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

previous epoch. It was thought at one time that he 
would divorce his Catholic Queen ; and at the height 
of the Anti-Popery mania no step would have been 
more popular. In spite of his interest, and even the 
safety of the throne, the King had the generosity to 
protect her. " They think," he said, " I have a mind 
to a new wife, but for all that I will not see an 
innocent woman abused." 

Charles was noted for his quick wit. It was a cur- 
rent phrase that " the King never said a foolish thing, 
nor ever did a wise one." * When this saying reached 
his ears, he retorted, " That is easily explained, 
for my discourse is my own, but my actions are my 
Ministry's." He remarked once of the Duke of Ormond, 
" I have done everything to disoblige that man, but it 
is not in my power to make him my enemy." A proof 
of his sensibility may be seen in the observation of 
the Duke of Buckingham one day when the Duke of 
Ormond came to Court. " Sir," said Buckingham, " I 
wish to know whether it be the Duke of Ormond that 
is out of favor with your Majesty, or your Majesty 
with the Duke of Ormond, for, of the two, you seem 
the most out of countenance." 

In all his public conduct Charles always displayed 
great tact, as well as a lively recollection of his father's 
ill-advised struggles with Parliament; always shunning 
any conflict which might possibly end in his fall and 
exile. One day when his brother James was urging 
some inexpedient act upon him he sagely replied, 
" Brother, I am too old to go again to my travels ; you 
may if you choose it." 

* Attributed to the Earl of Eochester, 



THE MONARCHY LIMITED. 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

James II., second son of Charles I., succeeded his 
brother, February, 1 685, and was then fifty-two years 
old. This Prince had some good traits of character. 
He displayed great courage in the Dutch war ; but was 
suspected and feared by the Nation for his bigoted 
devotion to the Catholic religion. He called Parlia- 
ment together in May ; and his professions to respect 
the laws, and religion as then established, were so 
plausible that the Commons promptly voted him the 
revenue of the late King for life, in spite of the re- 
monstrances of some of the Tory Members. He thus 
became independent of Parliament. 

The first year of his reign was marked by a foolish 
attempt of the Duke of Monmouth to stir up a Kebel- 
lion. The Duke was popular with the masses, and a 
staunch Protestant ; but the Nation dreaded another 
civil war, and James had a disciplined army of 30,000 
men. Monmouth was easily routed, and, being taken 
prisoner, was beheaded in July, 1685.* 

* This favorite of the people, a natural son of Charles II., was attended 
to the scaffold by crowds in tears. He warned the executioner not to 
fail, as he had done with Russell, and be obliged to repeat the blow. 
This suggestion only unmanned the executioner. He struck a feeble blow, 
and Monmouth was able to raise his head, and look him in the face, as 
if to reproach him for his failure. He gently laid his head a second time 

11* 



250 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

Parliament met for a second Session in November \\ 
after the Eebellion. James, elated by his fancied 
strength, ventured now to reveal his plans, and showed 
that he was clearly resolved on restoring the Catholic 
religion, and on asserting his Absolute authority. 
Shallow and conceited, he seemed to forget altogether 
the past history of England and the tragic fate of his 
father. He began by calling on Parliament to vote 
supplies for a standing army, and to repeal the Test 
Acts, which excluded the Catholics from office. The 
House of Commons soon perceived the tendency of 
tlie King's proposals, and combining with the House of 
Lords, no less eaofer in defence of the Protestant 
religion and the rights of Parliament, set to work 
preparing resolutions condemning the conduct of 
James. Thus we see, as of old, the Nobles and the 
Middle Class again uniting to resist the encroachments 
of arbitrary power. James perceiving a storm in the 
horizon, prorogued this refractory Parliament, and 
never called another. 

In the following year, 1686, James revived the 
Ecclesiastical Courb created by Elizabeth, abolished 
by the Long Parliament, and again prohibited in 
Charles IL's reign. He next boldly annulled the Test 
Acts by a Declaration of Indulgence, 1687, and fol- 
lowed this up by a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience 
— April, 1688. These acts of Toleration, since carried 
out by law in England, were then utterly repugnant to 
the Nation ; for in the minds of the people Catholicism, 
which James openly avowed his purpose of reviving, 

on the block, and the executionpr struck him several times ineffectually. 
He threw down the axe, and declared he could not finish the bloody work. 
The Sheriff obliged him to renew the attempt, and with two blows more 
the head was severed from the body. 



ENGLAND. 25 1 

was identified with Absolute Monarchy. The Bishops 
were particularly zealous in opposing the policy of 
James. Seven were sent to the Tower, and bein^ 
afterwards tried for misdemeanor were acquitted 
amid the shouts of the people. These insane pro- 
ceedings of the King aroused the deepest disgust, and 
a determination to get rid of him was adopted by the 
leaders of both parties. 

In the previous reign the Tories had refused to 
exclude James from the throne, while the Whigs had 
organized a conspiracy to carry out this object, but in 
the present emergency these differences were forgotten ; 
the leaders of both parties dismissing all factious con- 
siderations, and thinking only of the interests of the 
country. This spectacle of party patriotism was 
remarkable, but it would be an exaggeration to suppose 
that the Politicians of that day were less ambitious or 
more disinterested than those who have succeeded. 
The unanimity of the Tory and Whig chiefs was pro- 
bably in great part produced by the fact that behind 
them stood the combination of Nobles and Middle 
Class, who dictated, as of old, the course to adopt. 

In June, 1688, an invitation was sent to William 
Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland, to come to 
England and take the throne. The Prince of Orange was 
the grandson of Charles I., and had married his cousin 
Mary, the daughter of James II. He and his wife were 
both ardent Protestants. He was, besides, a man of dis- 
tinguished ability, one of the first soldiers in Europe, 
and of unbending strength of character. All these 
qualities he had already shown, for he had contended 
successfully for years against all the power of Louis XIV. 
of France. William, though ambitious, was eminently 



252 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPEC T. 

prudent, and, were it not that he plainly perceived that 
the English Nation would be satisfied with nothing less 
than the expulsion of his infatuated father-in-law, 
would probably have refused the offer of the English 
Crown. He sailed for England with 14,000 men ; and 
had barely landed when James, to his amazement, found 
himself standing actually alone. His army, officers, 
the Lords and the Commons, the people, even his own 
family, abandoned him, and welcomed William. Not 
a blow was struck. The King, terror-stricken, flung 
the Grreat Seal into the river, and fled to France. 

Upon this, the Lords assembled in their House for de- 
liberation, and William invited all persons who had been 
Members of the Commons in Charles's reign, together 
with the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London, to meet 
forthwith. One hundred and sixty Members met, and 
adopted unanimously an Address, already voted by the 
Lords, asking William to take charge of the Govern- 
ment temporarily, and to call by circular letters a new 
Parliament. The Prince consented to carry out these 
resolutions, and on January 23d, 1689, the Parliament — 
or, as it was then called, the Convention — met. The 
Whig party were in a majority, as their former opposi- 
tion to James rendered them popular at this moment. 
The Convention first employed itself in debating 
whether William should be made Eegent ; or his wife, 
the daughter of James, be declared Queen Eegnant ; 
but the Prince declined both these suggestions. The 
Crown was then conferred by Vote of both Houses on 
William and Mary, but subject to the limitations con- 
tained in a Declaration of Eights which accompanied 
the gift. The King and Queen accepted the Crown on 
these conditions. 



ENGLAND. 253 

From that day the English Crown ceased to be held 
on the maxim of Hereditary or Divine Eight. Its title 
has ever since reposed on a Contract with the Nation, 
according to which allegiance is given only on condition 
that the rights and liberties of all, as guaranteed by 
law, shall be respected. From that day tlie Monarchy 
of England was limited to such an extent that Supreme 
power virtually passed into the hands of the two Houses 
of Parliament. Thus triumphed Grovernment by Par- 
liament over Government by King ; thus ended the 
conflict begun by John, in 1215, with his Nobles and 
Freemen of the Middle Class. From this moment 
commenced the era of Constitutional Government, a 
Government that is regulated by the laws and usages of 
the country. The overthrow of the despotism of the 
Church in England in the sixteenth century led to the 
birth of religious freedom in the world. The overthrow 
of the despotism of the Monarchy in the same country 
in the seventeenth century led to the advent of political 
liberty. Both these blessings were secured to England 
by the Compact entered into with the Nation by William 
and Mary for themselves and their successors ; '' and it 
may justly be affirmed," remarks Hume, "that we in 
this island have ever since enjoyed, if not the best 
system of Government, at least^the most entire system 
of liberty that ever was known amongst mankind." 

From William and Mary, through the reigns of 
Anne, the Georges, and William IV., down to the present 
day Limited Monarchy and Parliamentary Government 
have lived in perfect harmon}^ It is true that Govern- 
ment by Parliament has obtained such ascendency that 
the Monarchy has dwindled into a mere pageant, though 
it still has its uses, social and political. It is also true 



254 ^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

that the House of Commons has extended its sway so 
far as to diminish the salutary influence of its ohl ally 
the House of Lords, This is subversive of that balance 
of the three elementary principles of Government which 
has been considered the striking merit of the British 
Constitution, and to maintain which the King, the 
Lords, and the Commons should each exercise their 
legitimate influence. 

We have now seen how, at the beginning of English 
history, the Kingly power preponderated ; how, as time 
went on, the Lords and Commons combined to limit it; 
and how, after long struggles, they succeeded in finally 
accomplishing it in 1688. Since then the House of 
Lords, as just remarked, has lost much of its ancient 
authority ; whilst the House of Commons has steadily 
increased its control until it has well nigh absorbed 
both the Executive and Legislative power. In spite of 
this defect in the political balance, the English Govern- 
ment is admirably administered, and the reasons for 
this I will undertake to show when I shall speak of 
England from personal observation. The theory of 
" checks and balances " in political machinery, however, 
is not wholly impracticable, as will be seen when 
commenting on the Constitution of the United States. 

Before closing this sketch, it may be interesting to add 
a few items of curious information, selected from Hume 
and others, by way of showing the material progress that 
was made after the Eestoration. Hume says that the 
commerce and riches of England did never during any 
period increase so fast as from the Eestoration to the 
Eevolution — 1660 to 1688. The recovery or con- 
quest of New York and the Jerseys was a considerable 
accession to the strength of the English Colonies, 



ENGLAND, 2$$ 

and, together with the settlement of Pennsylvania 
and Carolina, effected during tlie reign of Charles II., 
extended the English empire in America. Dr. 
Davenant affirms the shipping of England to have 
more than doubled in these twenty-eight years. Several 
new manufactures were established, as iron, brass, 
silk, hats, glass, paper, &c. One Brewer left the Low 
Countries, and brought the art of dyeing woollen cloth 
into England ; and this improvement saved the Nation 
great sums of money. Charles II. gave a Charter to 
the Hudson's Bay Company, and revived the Charter 
of the East India Company. Sir Joshua Child states 
that in 1688 there were on 'Change more men worth 
£10,000 than there were in 1650 worth £1,000; that 
£500 with a daughter was in the latter period deemed 
a larger dowry than £2,000 in the former ; that gen- 
tlewomen in 1650 thought themselves well clothed in a 
ierge gown which a chambermaid in 1688 would be 
ashamed to wear ; and that, besides the great increase 
of rich clothes, plate, jewels, and furniture, carriages 
had increased a hundred-fold. The Duke of Buck- 
ingham introduced from Venice the manufacture of 
glass and crystal into England. Tlie first I^aw for 
erecting turnpikes was passed in 1662. In 1670, a 
second Treaty between England and Spain was made, 
b}^ w\iich both States renounced the right of trading 
with each other's Colonies. The French King, in 
Cha7 les II.'s reign, laid some imposition on English 
commodities. England retaliated by making the com- 
merce with that kingdom almost prohibitory. 

In 1641, when the Star Chamber was abolished, the 
Long Parliament maintained the old restrictions as to 
printing of books. The same rigor was maintained by 



2 $6 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Cromwell. It was not till 1694 that these restraints were 
taken off, to the great alarm of William III. and his 
Ministers. In 1677, the old Law for burning heretics 
was repealed. The philosophical body known as the 
" Royal Society " was created by Charles II., who 
" was a lover of the Sciences, especially Chemistry and 
Mechanics." 

Amongst the distinguished men of this epoch were 
Christopher Wren in Architecture, Robert Hooke in 
Science — the rival of Newton — T. Sydenham in Medi- 
cine, Boyle in Chemistry. 

The reaction from the Puritanical manners and laws 
of the preceding epoch was so strong at the Restora- 
tion that Literature and the Drama, when revived, were 
affected by it. From asceticism all classes fell into licen- 
tiousness. The poetry of Dryden and Rochester, the 
plays of Wycherley and Otway, are striking proofs. The 
immortal "Hudibras" was written by Butler in Charles's 
reign ; and by exposing the fanaticism and cant of the 
Parliamentary party of Charles I.'s time, greatly served 
his son. 



THE PAPACY. 



B 



THE PAPACY. 

It will make the story of the Middle Ages more in- 
telligible if ^ve take a glance at the chequered career 
of the Papacy. Moreover, the religious history of 
Europe, though intimately blended with its political 
transformations, will be more impressive when contem- 
plated apart and disconnected from all extraneous 
matter. It will be interesting to trace in a general 
way the slow but steady growth of the Papacy, which 
century after century marched or) fj;^\ triumph to 
triumph, till it 'became the predominant authority of 
Europe. Kings and Emperors long resisted it. Heretics 
perished by thousands in assaulting it. In the sixteenth 
century it reached its zenith, but then received a blow 
which proved vital. From that date its omnipotence 
has declined. 

With this simple prelude let us turn to its origin. 

In 42 A.D., in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, 
St. Peter, the chief of the twelve Apostles, went to 
Eome, and made the metropolis of Paganism the 
head-quarters of the new Eeligion. From that date 
the authority of the See of Rome was acknowledged 
by all the Christian Churches in Europe, and all points 
in dispute were referred to its decision. When Con- 
stantino made Constantinople the new Capital of the 
Roman Empire, 330, the spiritual supremacy of the 
Bishops of Rome still continued, and they remained the 

B 2 



26o AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

head of the Christian Church in the East and the West 
until the Schism of 862,' when the Grreek Church de- 
clared itself independent of the Eoman Church, and has 
ever since remained so. 

During the first centuries of Christianity, the Roman 
Bishops rendered obedience to the various Emperors, 
or to their delegates in Italy after tie seat of the 
Empire had been removed to Constantinople. Their 
power was purely spiritual, but as the new doctrines 
spread their sway over the minds of men high and low 
continued to increase. The most despotic rulers during 
the Dark Ages yielded to their counsels and commands. 
It was not till the eighth century, when the Exarchs, or 
representatives of the Emperors of the East, were driven 
out of Italy, and when Pepin the French King, 755, 
and afterwards Charlemagne, 775, bestowed on them 
extensive tracts of land, that the Bishops of Eome 
became territorial rulers. At a much later date, 1077, 
the Countess Matilda of Tuscany made a gift of her 
States to the See of Eome, and these various territories 
received the name of the " Patrimony of St. Peter." 

G-regory VII., 1073, was the first Pontiff who assumed 
the title of Pope.* At first the Bishops of Eome were 
elected by the people and the Clergy. Then, later, by 
the Clergy only. The Emperors of Germany often 
arrogated the right to name the Pope. Finally, from 
the year 1170, the right of election was given exclusively 
to the Cardinals f by Pope Alexander III. 

The spiritual power of the Popes continued steadily 

* The word Pope is derived from the Greek P«;)pa5, signifying — father, 
t Cardinal is derived from the Latin word Cardinalis. At first the 
name was applied to the priests at the head of the parishes at Rome. 
They were then below the rank of Bishops of the Church. They 
gradually rose in importance till they began to be regarded as the 
Princes of the Church. 



THE PAPACY. 261 

to extend over all Christendom, and so great was the 
credulity of the masses during the greater part of the 
Middle Ages, so deep was their reverence for the head 
of the Church, that few Kings or Emperors ventured to 
resist his mandates. A sentence of Excommunication 
launched against any Potentate however powerful, 
impaired his authority over his subjects, who looked on 
him as accursed of Grod. 

Towards the end of the eleventh century, a IMonk 
named Peter the Hermit came from the Holy Land, 
and represented to the Pope, Urban II., the outrages 
suffered by the Christians from the Infidels, and the 
profanation of the Holy Sepulchre. The Pope authorized 
Peter to preach a Crusade against the Infidels, and 
Peter travelled over Europe, his feet bare and a cross 
in his hand, stirring up the religious zeal of the 
Christian world. A number of feudal Lords organized 
an expedition, at the head of which was a French 
Noble, Godfrey de Bouillon, a man of great capacity. 
He sold his Duchy to raise funds, and many other 
Nobles sold or mortgaged their fiefs to follow him. They 
set out for Asia Minor in 1096, and defeated the Sara- 
cens in every battle. Jerusalem was taken, and Godfrey 
was elected King. The expedition returned in 1100. 

The brilliant success of this adventure stimulated 
other Crusades. The Popes used all their influence to 
encourage them, as the religious fervor aroused by these 
pious enterprises served largely to augment their 
authority. The Second Crusade, 1147, was headed by 
Louis VII., King of France, and Conrad, Emperor of 
Germany. It was not so fortunate. The Third, 1189, 
was led by Eichard, Coeiir de Lion, King of England, 
by Philip Augustus, King of France, and Frederick 



262 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany, Europe was greatly 
excited by tliis grand array, but the result was not 
equal to the general expectation. The Emperor of 
Germany was defeated, and the King of France 
quarrelled with Kichard and returned home. 

Five other Crusades followed at different periods. 
The last, 1270, had Louis IX., King of France, for 
its chief. 

Contemporarily with the Crusades, Italy was distracted 
by a furious warfare which lasted over three centuries — 
the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. The quarrel 
began between two German Princes who aspired to the 
throne of Germany. At this time the Emperors of 
Germany ruled over the north of Italy, and the Pope 
seeing Germany divided by a civil war, thought the 
occasion a good one to emancipate Italy from the 
German yoke, and to strengthen the Papacy. His 
Holiness accordingly joined the Guelph party, which 
was favorable to the independence of Italy, and the 
domination of the Church. This sanguinary strife 
began in 1159, and continued at intervals down to 
1495, with no other result than the alternate victory 
and defeat of either party. 

From this may be seen the unhappy condition of 
Italy during the Middle Ages. France was no better 
off, for the constant broils of her feudal Lords kept the 
country in a state of chronic anarcliy. Germany was 
in a similar condition. England suffered less, as the 
Feudal System was weaker there. 

The Papacy, however, flourished and expanded in 
the midst of the disorder of Europe, which it -^i^'as 
often accused of seeking to promote. In every country 
the Priesthood was composed of the ablest men, who 



THE PAPACY. 263 

yielded implicit obedience to the orders from Rome. 
In all matters domestic or foreign of every nation, 
the Priesthood, through its influence over the minds 
of men, exercised irresistible sway. The Pope, as the 
chief of this powerful Hierarchy, was nothing else for 
several centuries than the Dictator of Europe. 

In 1229, a secret ecclesiastical tribunal was organized 
by Gregory IX. called the Inquisition, before which any 
person accused of heresy was brought, and often con- 
demned to torture or to death. This odious institution, 
which sacrificed thousands of lives, was established in 
most of the States of Europe, and was only abolished 
in Spain, its last stronghold, when Napoleon entered 
in 1808. 

A few historical facts will illustrate the vast extent of 
the Papal power during the Middle Ages. In 1200, 
Innocent III. laid an interdict on France. An interdict 
declared the whole Nation out of the pale of the 
Church. In 1208, the same Pope laid an interdict on 
England. He also pronounced sentences of deposi- 
tion from the throne against King John of England 
and Otho IV. of Germany ; and to escape the conse- 
quences, John acknowledged himself the vassal of the 
Pope. In 1245, Innocent IV. excommunicated and 
deposed the Emperor of Germany. In 1294, Boniface 
VIII. was arbiter between the Kings of France and 
England. Over two hundred years later, we find 
Julius 11., in 1503, giving permission to Prince 
Henry of England, afterwards Henry VIII., to marry 
Catlierine of Arragon. 

Up to this period Papal domination was so com- 
plete that Bishops and Cardinals frequently acted as 
Ministers of State in the various Kingdoms of Europe, 



264 ^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

and sometimes appeared at the head of armies. It 
may be supposed that the Monarchs of Europe, whose 
absolute power none contested save the Pcpes, con- 
stantly resisted the dictation of Eome, but such was 
the superstition of all classes that the Monarchs were 
compelled, however reluctantly, to submit. 

At various intervals attempts at rebellion against 
the Church of Rome were made. 

As early as the eleventh century a band of heretics 
appeared in the south of France called the Albigenses. 
They had adopted the doctrines of the Manicheans, 
that is, the opposing* principles of good and evil. 

Another sect called the Waldenses appeared also in 
the south of France in the twelfth century. They 
attacked the morals of the Clergy, and proposed to 
translate the Scriptures into the current tongue. The 
Papacy became alarmed at these symptoms of disaffec- 
tion, and Alexander III. began by excommunicating the 
disturbers. A little later, 1204, Innocent III. preached 
a Crusade against these rebels to the Mother-church, 
and an army was organized, which, under different 
leaders, committed terrible atrocities, killing thou- 
sands of the heretics, and dispersing the rest. 

In the beginning of the fourteenth century, Walter 
Lollard, said to be an Englishman, appeared in Germany. 
He attacked the doctrines of the Eoman Church, and 
declared that all its ceremonies were the inventions of 
the Priests. He was arrested, condemned by the In- 
quisition, and burnt at Cologne, 1322. He left 20,000 
followers, called the Lollards. 

In the middle of tlie same century, in England, 
Wicklifife made a furious onslaught on the Church of 
Rome. Being deprived of his place as Principal of the 
College of Canterbury by the Archbishop, he appealed 



THE PAPACY. 265 

to the Pope, wlio decided against him. Exasperated 
at this he made war on tlie Papal power, assailing 
in turn all the essential tenets of the Church. He 
denied the Necessity of Confession ; the Damnation 
of Children who died before Baptism ; the Efficacy 
of Indulgences ; the Supremacy of the See of Eome ; 
the Hierarchy ; the Eight of the Clergy and Monks 
to Property. The King, Edward III., whom Wickliffe 
had sustained against the Pope, favored him, but 
the Pope, Gregory II., ordered the Archbishop of 
Canterbury to arrest him. Cited before a Council 
called by the Archbishop, he escaped a condemnation 
through the influence of one of the Eoyal Princes, the 
Duke of Lancaster. A second Council held in London, 
1382, condemned ten of his declarations as heresy, but 
the Clergy could proceed no further, as Wickliffe was 
under the Eoyal protection. 

In the beginning of the following century, 1409, 
John Huss, who was the Confessor of the Queen of 
Bohemia, adopted with great ardor the Anti-Papal 
opinions of Wickliffe, and began attacking the autho- 
rity of the Pope, and denouncing the vices of the 
Clergy ; the Excommunications ; the Indulgences ; the 
Worship of the Virgin and the Saints. He was excom- 
municated by the Pope, Alexander V., and sum- 
moned ' before the Council of Constance, where he 
was condemned as a heretic. Eefusing to retract, he 
was sentenced to be burnt, 1414. He died with in- 
trepidity, persisting in his opposition. His followers 
were so numerous that they took up arms, and a civil 
war ensued which lasted many years. 

Another rebellious sect called the Moravian Brothers 

appeared some years later, and increased in spite of 

great persecution. 

12 



LUTHER, CALVIN, AND KNOX. 

SIXTEENTH CENTURY, 

In the early part of the sixteenth century came Luther, 
who by his courage and ability succeeded in establish* 
ing a Schism in the Eoman Church that was destined 
to be permanent. There is no doubt the success of 
Luther was facilitated by the efforts of Wicklilfe and 
John Huss. Moreover, the superstition of previous 
centuries was gradually melting away, and the dread 
of Papal denunciation was fast disappearing. A spirit 
of Scepticism united to a hatred of the Papal power 
had long been fermenting in the German mind ; and 
it only wanted an occasion, above all some resolute 
man, to evoke it, when it was sure to break forth and 
assume formidable proportions. 

Luther was the son of a poor miner. He joined the 
Augustine Monks, and then became a Professor of the 
Univ^ersity. The Pope, Leo X., to raise money* ordered 
the sale throuo-hout Christendom of Indulo-ences for 
Sin, 1517, and gave this privilege to the Dominican 
Monks of Germany. The Augustine Monks, irritated 
at this preference, urged Luther to attack this whole- 
sale distribution of Indulgences. He engaged zealously 

* Tins money was at first intended for a Crusade against the Turks, 
but was employed to finish the church of St. Peter at Rome. Leo X. 
was a liberal patron of letters, arts, and sciences. During this brilliant 
epoch flourished Ariosto, Macchiavelli, Michael Angelo, audEaphael. 



THE PAPACY. ^ 267 

in the work, and published a powerful denunciation of 
this Papal scandal, which reverberated through Ger- 
many. The chief of the Dominicans publicly burnt 
Luther's book, and the Pope summoned him to Rome, 
He refused to go, and the Legate of the Pope at Augs- 
burg demanded a retraction. As he spurned this sum- 
mons his arrest was ordered, but he escaped, and pro- 
tected by the Elector of Saxony he launched into a 
fierce assault on the Church. 

He was won derf idly endowed for such a contest. 
His nature was aggressive and turbulent ; his eloquence 
earnest and soul-stirring ; and his industry indefatigable. 
Vfith the impetuosity of a torrent he wrote and 
harangued incessantly. Repudiating all authority but 
the Holy Scriptures, he denounced the Papacy ; the 
Roman Church ; Monastic Vows; the Celibacy of Priests; 
the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy; the Possession of Property 
by the Clergy. He likewise rejected the Worship of the 
Saints; the dogmas of Purgatory, of Confession, and 
the Mass ; only recognizing Baptism and the Eucharist 
of two Kinds. 

Leo X. proscribed him by a Bull of Excommunication, 
1520, and ordered his writings to be burnt. In return, 
Luther publicly burnt the Pope's Bull at Wittemberg, 
with all the decisions of the Holy See. Smnmoned 
before the Diet at Worms, 1521, be went there pro- 
vided with a rafe-conduct from the Emperor of Grermany, 
Charles V., and refusing to retract, he was declared under 
the ban of the Empire. He escaped from Worms, and 
was concealed for nine months in a Palace of his pro- 
tector, the Elector of Saxony. He devoted this period, 
1522, to a translation of the Bible into the German 
language. 



268 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

The extraordinary success of Luther in his efforts to 
reform the Eoman religion showed the earnest desire of 
a part of the Christian world to escape from the Papal 
yoke, as well as the awakening* of the European intellect 
to a sense of the spiritual tyranny that had so long 
oppressed it. The vital principle of the Eevolution 
effected by Luther was the right of " private judgment," 
as opposed to the assumed infallibility of the Church. 
He claimed that all had a right to exercise their 
judgment on the choice of their religion, and were not 
compelled to accept the doctrines of Rome as infallible — 
indeed, he took infinite pains to prove that they were 
not so. This was an audacious heresy in the eyes of the 
Papacy, but the success of the new doctrine proved that 
Europe was ripe for a religious revolt, and to Luther 
must be ascribed the glory of striking the first victorious 
blow. For though Lollard, Wickliffe, and Huss strained 
the chain that held the mind and bod}^ of man in bon- 
dage, yet it was Luther who first broke its links and 
encouraged humanity to aspire to religious and political 
independence, which had never been dreamt of before 
his time. 

To Luther's success is due some of the grandest 
events of Modern history ; and it is only logical to 
regard him as the author of such important results as 
the English Act of Settlement of 1688, the American 
Revolution of 1776, and the French Revolution of 1789. 
If Luther had never lived, these events would have 
occurred, but possibly not for some hundreds of years. 
He first attacked with success the religious thraldom 
that aggrieved the world, and political subjugation was 
bound to fall in its turn as knowledge spread. 

Among the partisans of Luther were numerous Kings 



THE PAPACY. 269 

and Princes who longed to throw off the despotism of 
the Pope. The Sovereigns of Sweden, Denmark, 
Franconia, Hesse, the Palatinate, Brandenburg, cordially 
sustained him ; and after many struggles a Treaty was 
signed at Nuremberg, 1 532, between the Lutheran Princes 
and Charles V., Emperor of Germany. Liberty of Con- 
science, that is, religious independence, was thus formally 
conceded to the followers of the Eeformed religion, who 
were generally known as the " Protestants," from having 
'protested against the decision of the Diet of Spires, in 
1529. 

The rebellion of Luther against the primitive Church 
stimulated disaffection far and wide, and numerous 
other sects of Dissenters sprang up. 

Some years before his death, 1546, Luther witnessed 
the overtlirow of the Papacy in England — from causes, 
however, totally distinct from love of his doctrines. 

He also beheld the advent of a new apostle of reform 
in Calvin, a Frenchman, who embraced Lutheranism, 
and began preaching in Paris in 1532, whence he was 
soon obliged to flee to escape arrest. Calvin afterwards 
became a Professor of Theology at Greneva, where the 
Eeformed religion had been adopted. After various 
vicissitudes he died there in 1564. 

Like most converts to a Eevolution, Calvin carried 
the war against the Eoman Church to greater lengths 
than Luther deemed necessary. He repudiated all 
external Worship, all pompous Ceremonies, Cathedrals, 
and Hierarchies ; saying Bishops and Priests were 
no more needed than Popes. Calvin, though a reformer, 
was fiercely intolerant. He obtained the execution at 
Geneva of Dr. Servet, a learned man, for professing 



270 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

Unitarianism, as also of Grentilis, who advocated the 
same doctrine. 

Calvin originated the doctrine of Predestination, 
declaring that some were predestined to be saved, and 
others to be damned. 

The followers of Calvin spread over Europe. John 
Knox, a Scotchman, introduced Calvinism — that is, 
the Reformed religion as further reformed by Calvin — 
into Scotland in 1547. Knox closely resembled his 
predecessor Luther in character. He was intrepid, 
ungovernable, and impassioned. He was twice com- 
pelled to flee from Scotland, and was condemned to be 
burnt as a heretic. He repaired to his friend Calvin 
at Greneva, where he remained till Elizabeth, a Pro- 
testant, ascended the English throne. Eeturning to 
Scotland, 1558, he instigated a terrible outbreak 
against the Catholic Clergy at Perth, and finally influ- 
enced the Scotch Parliament to abolish the Roman 
religion, and adopt Calvinism — there called Presby- 
terianism. He likewise contributed powerfully to the 
downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots. 

Knox translated the Bible into English. It had 
previously been translated by Tyndal,* 1526, who was 
forced for this to escape from England. 

In France the partisans of the Reformed religion 
were known by the name of Huguenots, and underwent 
great persecution. They were involved in frequent 
wars with the Grovernment, which adhered to the 
Eoman religion. An attempt was made by Charles 
IX., 1572, to exterminate them on the night of St. 
Bartholomew. 

*■ Tyndal went to Germany, and was intimate with Luther; but 
afterwards, at the demand of Henry VIII. of England, was arrested by 
■ he Emperor of Germany, and burnt at A^igsburg. 



THE PAPACY. 271 

The alliance of the Church with the Throne in 
France was so close that any attack on its power was 
dangerous. Still, symptoms of insubordination began 
to appear. The spirit of Luther was at work. 

Towards the middle of this century, Eabelais pub- 
lished a satirical romance, " Gargantua et Pantagruel^'* 
which adroitly concealed under a mass of bufibonery 
and indecency a damaging attack on the Clergy. 

In 1580, Montaigne ventured to write with less 
reserve. In his polished Essays on various subjects he 
revealed the sceptical state of his mind, and his bold 
query of. Que sais-je ? — " What do I know ? " — was 
uttered with impunity. Fortunately for himself 
Montaigne was a favorite at Court. 

Twenty years later came Charron with his striking 
" TraiU cle la Sagesse " — " Treatise on Wisdom " — 
wherein he dared to discuss the origin of religion itself. 
" For," says he, " if we look a little deeper we shall see 
that each of the great religions is built upon that which 
preceded it. Thus the religion of the Jews is founded 
on that of the Egyptians ; Christianity is the result 
of Judaism ; and from these two last there has na- 
turally sprung Mohammedanism." 

The fate of Charron would have been the stake for 
such language as this had not Henry IV. been on the 
throne. This great Monarch was a Huguenot, but he 
readily embraced Catholicism to put an end to civil 
war. "Pa7'is," he said, ''vaut Men une Messe^^ — 
" Paris is well worth a Mass." The grandest act of his 
reign was the Edict of Nantes, 1598, which guaran- 
teed the religious liberty of the Huguenots. This was 
the first decisive blow to the Papacy in France. 



DESCARTES AND RICHELIETj. 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

In the following century, the seventeenth, came Des- 
cartes, the greatest intellect France had yet produced. 
In the variety of his genius he wonderfully resembled 
Lord Bacon. He was of noble family, and first entered 
the army, which he abandoned in 1620. He then 
travelled widely, and returned to Holland to write. 

Knowing that all the knowledge of his day was 
borrowed from the ancient world, and convinced that 
it was often superficial and erroneous, he resolved to 
overthrow it and construct a new edifice of science 
founded on solid proofs. 

His books descanting on every known topic electri- 
fied Europe. In Mathematics, he applied a new alge- 
braic notation to Geometry, and solved problems before 
declared insoluble. In Physics, he discovered the 
true law of the refraction of light, and gave a simple 
explanation of the rainbow, till then a mystery. In 
Astronomy and Cosmology, he invented admirable 
theories of planetary attraction, far beyond any then 
known. He sustained G-alileo's assertion that " the 
earth moves," which the Papacy pronounced rank 
blasphemy. Descartes, also, wrote ably on Physiology 
and Anatomy. He adopted the important discoveries 
of two of his contemporaries ; that of Harvey, who 



THE PAPACY. 273 

made known the circulation of the blood, and that of 
Aselli, who detected the lacteal vessels. 

The great object of Descartes in his scientific labors 
was to prove that the learning of his epoch was greater 
than that of the ancients, and so destroy all reverence 
for antiquity. He knew the authority of the Church 
reposed on the Scholastic Philosophy that had prevailed 
from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries. This Scho- 
lastic Philosophy simply meant such knowledge as the 
Church thought it safe to allow, and therefore all 
knowledge up to the time of Descartes vindicated Theo- 
logy, that is, the Dogmas of the Church. No one could 
speak or write to the contrary without incurring the 
penalty of heresy. To make the Scholastic Philosophy 
more imposing, the Church had endorsed it with the 
great name of Aristotle — an outrage upon the Heathen 
Philosopher. To diminish, then, the respect of France 
for the Scholastic Philosophy, and thus sap the founda- 
tions of the Church's power, Descartes proved by his 
great discoveries how far the knowledge of his time 
exceeded that of the ancient world, even including 
Aristotle. 

Antiquity was thus shattered at a blow. The in- 
tellect of France arose from its prostration of centuries 
before the graven image of the Scholastic Philosophy 
set up by the Church, and began a struggle for eman- 
cipation that overwhelmed all opposition. The moment 
the intellectual basis of the Papacy was thus impaired, 
its spiritual supremacy was in danger. Descartes had 
aroused the spirit of doubt, and before it the blind 
belief that had enveloped the minds of men, as in 
swaddling clothes, began gradually to fall. 

Descartes, however, threw another bomb into the 
12* S 



274 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

entrenched camp of the Papacy. He wrote several 
metaphysical books which fomided a New Philosophy. 
Their purport was simply to establish the supremacy of 
the Intellect over the traditions and prejudices that 
had hitherto ciushed it. He declared that man was a 
thinking animal, the incarnation of thought, " For that 
whicii constitutes the man is not his bones, nor his 
flesh, nor his blood. These are the accidents, the in- 
cumbrances of his nature. The man himself is the 
thought. Je pense, done je suis — ' I think, therefore I 
exist.' " 

With such bold and novel phrases he sought to build 
up a pedestal for human Reason, which would rescue it 
f'-om the g'.'ound where it had so long grovelled. After 
such homage as this to the supremacy of the Intellect, he 
drew his conclusions. Their design may be seen in the 
following quotation : — "Hence our religion should not 
be acquired by the teaching of others, but should be 
worked out by ourselves ; it is not to be borrowed from 
antiquity, but it is to be discovered by each man's 
mind. It is not traditional, but personal.'' 

" The mischief," says Buckle, " which these principles 
must have done to the old theology" — that is, the 
Papacy — " is very obvious ; they were fatal to many of 
the common dogmas, such as transubstantiation, &c." 
Of course, it is obvious enough, as that was the aim of 
Descartes in founding a philosophy which " rejected all 
authority but the human reason." He was the logical 
successor of Luther. " He completed what the great 
German reformer had left undone. He bore to the old 
systems of philosophy the same relation that Luther 
bore to the old systems of religion." Yes ; these two 
men, above all others, jointly demolished the intellectual 



THE PAPACY. 275 

and religious organization of Europe as it had 
existed for 700 years, from the ninth to the sixteenth 
century. 

The philosophy of Descartes was founded on " Innate 
Ideas," and was superseded in France fifty years later 
by the philosophy of Locke, 1690, who, rejecting the 
theory of Innate Ideas, said the mind was a blank at 
its birth, and received all its ideas by two channels, 
"sensation and reflection." It mattered little if Descartes' 
theory was sound or not. His purpose was to arouse 
the intellect of his age, and undermine the spiritual 
despotism of the Papacy, and he succeeded. 

All authorities agree that the illustrious Eichelieu was* 
in politics what Descartes was in philosophy. Whilst 
the latter was writing, tlie bold Cardinal was acting. 
As chief Minister of Louis XIII., 1624, he did more 
to weaken the Papacy and humble the French Clergy 
than all who had preceded him. It astonished all 
Europe that France should be governed by a Priest who 
diminished the power of the Ecclesiastics, and who made 
the interests of the Church subordinate to those of the 
State. 

Eichelieu gave many striking proofs that this was his 
object. It was the clerical law of Europe up to this 
time that the Clergy could only be taxed by themselves. 
Consequently the great wealth of the French Clergy 
never benefited the State. Eichelieu said the ^' State 
was the first consideration ;" and on one occasion he 
convoked an Assembly of the Clergy at Nantes, and 
demanded a supply of six millions of Irancs. There 
was a cry of sacrilege on the part of some of the 
dignitaries of the Church, but this he suppressed by 
banishing four Bishops and two Archbishops. The 

s 2 



276 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

money was then given. In 1632, in Langnedoc, he 
deprived three Bishops of their places, and seized the 
temporalities of others. The Papacy was thunderstruck 
at these outrages from a son of the Church. Eichelieu, 
however, cared more for the glory of France than the 
satisfaction of the Papacy, and mocked at the thunders 
of the Vatican. 

It is therefore clear that it was by the joint exertions 
of Descartes and Eichelieu that the absolute power of 
the Papacy was demolished in France. 

A rally was made in the reign of Louis XIV. The 
wonderful eloquence of Bossuet and Massillon shed a 
temporary lustre over the Eoman Church ; and the 
King revoked the Edict of Nantes, 1685, which led to 
a general emigration of the Huguenots from dread of 
persecution. In the following reign, that of Louis XV., 
the Church lost ground rapidly. In 1762, the Order of 
the Jesuits, which had long been the terror of Europe, 
was suppressed. In 1787, Louis XVI. issued a new 
Edict of Toleration, but in 1789 the Eevolution swept 
away the Church itself, and appropriated all its revenues, 
estimated at two thousand millions of* francs. 



TREATY OF WESTPHALIA. 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Whilst the Eeformed religion was struggling in 
Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland, it under- 
went great vicissitudes in Germany. After many 
minor conflicts a formidable war broke out, in 1618, 
between the Protestant Princes of the North, and the 
Catholic Emperor of Southern Grermany, which lasted 
thirty years. The Protestant Kings of Sweden and 
Denmark joined in it, as did France towards the 
close. Cardinal Richelieu, to the amazement of Europe, 
took the Protestant side against his co-religionists; 
but he thought it a greater object to break down the 
military power of Austria than to sustain the Catholic 
religion. 

The celebrated Treaty of Westphalia, 1648, put an 
end to the religious wars of Grermany. The parties to 
this Treaty were France and Sweden, as allies, against 
the Emperor of Germany. The political and religious 
state of Europe, as settled by this Treaty, remained 
undisturbed till 1806, when it was reorganized by 
Napoleon. This Treaty is memorable, besides, as being 
the origin of that system of International Law which is 
now recognized by the civilized world. Buckle thus 
speaks of it : — " This celebrated Treaty is remarkable 
as being the first comprehensive attempt to adjust the 



2/8 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

conflicting interests of the leading European countries. 
In this important Treaty, ecclesiastical interests were 
altogether disregarded, and the contracting parties, 
instead of, as heretofore, depriving each other of their 
possessions, took the bolder course of indemnifying 
themselves at the expense of the Church, and did not 
hesitate to seize her revenues, and secularize several of 
her bishoprics.* From this grievous insult, which 
became a precedent in the public law of Europe, the 
Spiritual Power" — the Papacy — "has never recovered, 
and since that period diplomatists have in their official 
acts neglected religious interests, and have preferred 
the advocacy of matters relating to the commerce and 
colonies of their respective countries. The truth of this 
is confirmed by the fact that the Thirty Years' War, to 
which this same Treaty put an end, is the last great 
religious war which has ever been waged ; no civilized 
people during two centuries having thought it worth 
while to peril their own safety in order to disturb the 
belief of their neighbours." 

The Pope was indignant at this Treaty ; but he was 
helpless. Not only had England, Sweden, Denmark, 
and Northern Germany discarded the Papacy, but 
even Catholic France under Eichelieu had for political 
motives joined the Protestant League ; and the Pope's 
only ally, the Emperor of Southern Germany, had been 
defeated. 

From this shock the Papacy never fully recovered, 
but gradually declined in political influence, even in 
the States that retained the Eoman religion. 



* By this Treaty France obtanied Metz, Toul, and Yerdun, which up 
to this time had been under the ecclesiastical government of a Bishop, 
but which were now annexed to France. 



THE PAPACY. 279 

Thus we see that up to the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, the Papacy wielded absolute power over the 
conscience of Europe, with the exception of Eussia, 
where the Grreek religion prevailed. The frequent 
abuse of this power provoked resistance ; and during the 
sixteenth century the Papacy was successively over- 
thrown in England, North Germany, Sweden, Denmark, 
and part of Switzerland. 

In the seventeenth century, it was successfully defied 
in France, where, in the eighteenth century, it was 
temporarily suppressed by the Eevolution. Though 
restored in the nineteenth century, its Ecclesiastical 
power was limited by a Concordat. 

In our own day we have seen the Papacy not only 
curtailed of some of its sacerdotal immunities in Italy, 
its birthplace, but utterly stripped of all temporal 
power. The Eoman religion, however, still maintains 
its hold on the Christian world in spite of the decay of 
the Papacy. 



THE UNITED STATES, 



THE UNITED STATES. 

COLONIAL EPOCH. 

The history of the United States virtually begins with 
the emigration of the various bands of English settlers 
who pitched their tents in the forests of North America. 
The different Colonies which rapidly sprang up one 
after the other were nothing else than the United 
States in embryo ; and in following, however generally, 
their growth and development, we shall discover the 
origin of those traits and institutions which suddenly 
converted a group of youthful Colonies into a galaxy of 
sovereign States. 

Before entering on any delineation of the incipient 
States, it may be well to refresh the memory of the 
general reader with some of the dates connected with the 
annals of North America. 

In 1492, America was discovered by Christopher 
Columbus. 

In 1497, John Cabot, believing he could reach the 
East Indies by the North-West Passage, induced Henry 
VII. of England to aid him, and though he failed in 
his original project, he was the first to discover New- 
foundland, Labrador, and Canada. In 1512, Florida 
was discovered by Ponce de Leon. In 1534, Canada 
was occupied by the French, and held till 1763. In 
1541, the Mississippi river was discovered by De Soto. 



284 A^ HISTORICAL RETROSFECT, 

In 1584, the English, under Sir Walter Ealeigh, landed 
in Virginia, thus named after the virgin Queen Eliza- 
beth.* In 1608, John Smith founded Jamestown. 
This was the first permanent settlement in North 
America. In 1609, Henry Hudson discovered the 
Hudson river, and Hudson's Bay, both named after him. 
In 1614, the Dutch founded a Colony on the site after- 
wards called New York, which tliey then termed New 
Amsterdam. In 1 620, the Puritans landed at Plymouth. 
In 1623, the Dutch occupied Delaware, and in 1627, the 
Swedes followed them, but in 1664, the English dis- 
possessed both. In 1633, Maryland was settled by the 
English under Leonard Calvert, brother of Lord Balti- 
more, and Carolina was also inhabited by the English 
in 1663, the latter having been previously colonized 
by the Spanish and French. In 1664, the Dutch 
surrendered New Amsterdam to the English, who then 
changed its name to New York, after the Duke of York. 
In 1681, William Penn established a Quaker Colony at 
Philadelphia. In 1732, an English Colony settled in 
Georgia, so named after Greorge II. Whilst the coast was 
thus occupied, Europeans were making their way into 
the interior. In 1683, Lasalle, starting from Canada, 
descended the Mississippi, and took possession of 
Louisiana, named after Louis XIV., where, in 1699, a 
French Colony was established. In 1717, New Orleans 
was founded by the French, and in 1735, also Vincennes 
in Indiana. England, jealous of the French posses- 
sions in America, engaged in war with France in 1754, 
and by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, became owner of all 

*Eor some time after this the whole coimtry was called Virginia, 
from Florida on the south, belonging to the Spaniards, to Canada on the 
north, belonging to the French. 



THE UNITED STATES. 285 

North America save a portion of Louisiana. She did 
not, however, long retain the sovereignty of this, vast 
empire, for in 1776, the English Colonies rose against 
the Mother-country, which was forced, in 1783, reluc- 
tantly to give them up. 

So much for dates : now for a glimpse of the colonial 
epoch of the United States. 



THE PUEITANS. 



SE VENTEENTH CENTUR F. 



Most of the English settlers of all the Colonies were 
loyal subjects of their successive Sovereigns, from James 
I. to George III., for they abandoned the Mother- 
country purely from a spirit of enterprise, and in hope 
of wealth. 

The first emigrants to Virginia, 1607, were a reckless 
band of adventurers in search of gold. These were 
followed later by artisans and agriculturists of the 
lower class. 

This was not the character, however, of another batch 
of emigrants who, though not insensible to worldly 
advantages,* entertained projects of a more aspiring 
description. They were enamored of certain turbulent 
ideas in religion and politics, for which they were ready 
to sacrifice everything but their lives. To save these, 
they fled from England to Holland, 1610, but they saw 

* The Rev. Cotton Mather, in his History of New England, copies 
from a manuscript circulated among the Puritans at the time the varioiis 
considerations that induced them to emigrate. The following is one of 
them: "Sixthly: The whole earth is the Lord's garden, and He hath 
given it to the sons of i\dam to be tilled and improA'ed by them. Why 
then should we stand starving here for places of habitation, and in the 
meantime snifer whole countries as profitable for the use of man to lie 
waste without any improvement?" It is plain the Puritans of 1620, 
with all their "thick-coming fancies" on religion and politics, were a 
practical psople, and their love of theory did not make them indifferent 
to the ownership of the " Lord's garden" beyond the seas. 



THE UNITED STATES. 28/ 

little prospect of carrying out their wild schemes among 
the phlegmatic Dutch, and resolved to embark for 
the wilderness. They did a wise thing for themselves 
and posterity those Puritans who embarked at Delfts- 
Haven, 1620, for nowhere on earth, save in the trackless 
desert, could such theories as theirs be consum- 
mated. 

The Puritans were the lineal descendants of Luther's 
rebellion. No sooner was the Koman Church success- 
fully assailed by the first Eeformer, than, as we saw, 
crop after crop of new rebels sprang up. John Knox's 
Scotch Presbyterians were the immediate progenitors 
of these stiff-necked Dissenters south of the Tweed. 
This new revolutionary Sect proposed to abolish every- 
thing but God Himself. Hierarchy, liturgy, music, 
pontificals, fasting, kneeling, the sign of the cross — all 
these were abominations borrowed by Rome from Pagan 
times. They undertook to restore Christianity to its 
native purity, and considered themselves entitled to the 
novel appellation of Puritans. The religious discus- 
sions then raging in England sharpened the wits of 
men, and the Puritans must have been the keenest of 
all to start a new Sect. In fact, they were in religion 
downright levellers, sweeping away everything in 
doctrine or worship then existing. 

It was not likely they would bridle their daring 
spirit when they had got thus far. Having defied all 
authority in Church matters, they were sure sooner or 
later to question authority in State matters. This 
became so palpable even in Queen Bess's reign, that she 
and my Lord Burleigh considered them more pesti- 
ferous than the Catholics, and launched statute after 
statute against them. 



288 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

The Puritans loved their new-fangled notions too 
well, I repeat, to die for them : they preferred to live 
and propagate them. Hence their Exodus to Holland. 
Hence their embarkation for the wilds of America. 
There they found neither Monarchy, nor Aristocracy, 
nor Catholics, nor Protestants, nor Presbyterians — 
nothing but the savage and the forest. They attacked 
one with gunpowder and brandy, and the other with 
the axe. They soon cleared space enough to erect their 
temple, and to worship after their own fashion. 

No heretic, however, in the shape of a Catholic or 
Quaker was allowed to approach it.* In England they 
railed against Church and State for meddling with 
their conscience, and denying them religious liberty. 
Once their own masters in America, they forbade any 
other Sect to enter their boundaries. This was incon- 
sistent, but such is human nature. 

Having secured the Church from all a'ivalry, they 
next looked sharply after morals. Woe to all sinners 
against the Decalogue. But even the levities of life 
were not tolerated. Cotton Mather denounced the 
drinking of healths at table as Pagan ; proscribed the 
use of ornaments for the hair by females ; and rebuked 
the wickedness of leaving their arms and necks un- 
covered. 

These daring innovators clearly meant to construct 
society anew, and mould human nature after their own 
pattern. The European mould they considered im- 

* By the penal law of Massachusetts, any Catholic Priest who set 
foot in the Colony after being once driven out of it, was liable to capital 
punishment. The law against Quakers, 1656, begins, "Whereas an 
accursed race of heretics called Quakers has sprung up," &c. They were 
sentenced to be whipped, and imprisoned with hard labor, if found in 
the Colony. A law in 1644 banished the Anabaptists from the Colony. 



THE UNITED S TA TES. 289 

perfect, and essayed to break. They ignored the satir- 
ical Horace who asserted that, Naturam expelles furcd, 
tamen usque recurret — "Vain is the attempt to sup- 
press nature, for sooner or later it will vindicate itself." 
Eeligion and morals being now regulated after the 
Puritan standard, the problem of Government remained. 
The Puritans who landed at Plymouth, 1620, however 
they may have differed in intelligence, were otherwise 
all equals. They represented the Middle Class of Eng- 
land.* " The settlers," says De Tocqueville, " who 
established themselves on the shores of New England 
all belonged to the more independent classes of their 
native country. Their union on the soil of America at 
once presented the singular phenomenon of a society 
containing neither lords nor common 'people^ neither 
rich nor poor. These men possessed, in proportion to 
their number, a greater mass of intelligencef than is 
to be found in any European nation of our own time. 
All, without a single exception, had received a good 
education, and many of them were known in Europe 
for their talents and acquirements." Without title, 
privilege, or fortune, it was not likely that such men, 
at such a time and place, would dream of Monarchy 
or Aristocracy. Each stood in need of the right arm of 
the other, and they naturally entered into a Compact to 
combine themselves into " a civil body politick for our 
better ordering and preservation," and agreed " to 

^ A distinguished author remarks that "in England the stronghold 
of Puritanism was in the middle classes, and it was from the middle 
classes that the majority of the emigrants came." 

t Strange to say, these intelligent men brought to America the absurd 
delusions existing in England and all Europe on the subject of witch- 
craft. They seemed to believe that Satan visibly interfered through his 
agents in the alYairs of this world, and frequently condemned to death 
unfortunate persons accused of " witchcraft." 

13 T 



290 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

enact, constitute, and frame sucli just and equal laws 
as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the 
good of the colony." * Had these emigrants come 
imder a leader whose social or intellectual superiority 
was recognized, then, some one of the old forms 
of European Grovernment might have been adopted. 
These Puritans, however, were in condition and intellect 
so nearly on a level that assumption of authority by 
any one was impossible, until conferred by the 
Majority. 

In this way was bom in the world a Grovernment till 
then unknown. It is true that thinkers both before 
and since the Christian era had indulged in visions of a 
pure Democracy, but out of dreamland it had never 
existed. Nor was such a scheme possible in Europe, 
Asia, or Africa, where the superior intellect of the 
'Minority secured for them the Government of the 
Majority, and the control of the national wealth. It 
could not be otherwise, as the Majority, from ignorance, 
were unable to govern, and if at any period in any of 
these Continents the Minority had chosen to abdicate, 
anarchy in a thousand forms must have ensued. To 
have proposed the establishment of a pure Democracy, 
therefore, in any part of the Old World, that is, the 
Government of the intellectual few by the ignorant 
many, would have been an absurdity. 

Had the Majority of the English people in the 
seventeenth century possessed the capacity of the 
Puritans, there would have been no necessity for the 
latter to emigrate, as they would have had in their own 
country the Government of this Majority. But, as such 

* This quotation is borrowed from the Compact drawn up bj tho 
Puritans in the cabin of the Mayflower before landing. 



THE UNITED STATES. 29 1 

was "not the case, these brooding men were dissatisfied. 
They had religious and political crotchets they were 
bent on testing. Was it wise to try the experiment in 
England or elsewhere ? Some decided on the former 
course ; others, more practical, chose the latter. The 
Puritans in England succeeded — 1640-1660— in upset- 
ting the rule of the Minority, but the Majority feeling 
themselves incompetent to govern, restored it at the 
earliest opportunity. 

The band who embarked for terra incognita contained 
a Majority able to make laws and administer them. 
The 41 men* who began business in December, 1620, 
on the frozen soil of America at a spot they named 
Plymouth, voted by a Majority the "just and equal 
laws " required ; and in the same manner appointed 
" a Grovernor and seven assistants " to carry them out. 
They were few enough, at first, to meet together, and 
make new laws and new Grovernors by a Majority, as 
aforesaid. Soon they grew too numerous, and then 
they chose, by a Majority, Delegates to attend to their 
Legislative and Executive affairs. This Representative 
SysteTn they were obliged to borrow from the Mother- 
country, which had the honor of inventing it. 

This proves that none but English Colonists who 
■understood the political machinery that had been set 
up in England, and which was meant to supersede the 
arbitrary will of an individual, or of a single class — 
it proves, I say, that none but Englishmen of the 
seventeenth century could have laid the foundation of 
a pure Democracy. The French and Spaniards who 
went to America knew nothing of the Eepresentative 

* The whole company, including women and children, ni;mbered 101 

T 2 



292 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Sj^stem. A Goverament by the Majority of them would 
only have ended in confusion. They imported the 
arbitrary rule they had inherited. Even at this day the 
Majority in France and Spain have not the political 
knowledge necessary to govern. 

The Puritans of Plymouth, however, were the de- 
scendants of that JNIiddle Class who, as was shown, in 
conjunction with the Nobles wrested Magna Charta 
from King John, and members, too, of the same class 
which was still struggling against the Royal prerogative. 
These shrewd men doubted the fitness of the Lower Class 
in England— the Majority— to govern, but they knew 
what could be accomplished if they once had the 
fulcrum on which to work their lever. In quest of 
this they came to Plymouth, and planted there the 
seeds of that Grovernment by a Majority which was sure 
to prosper so long as the Majority were able to judge 
if their governmental work was properly done. The 
whole secret of Self-government turns on this. If the 
Majority of the population can^ be deluded by their 
Delegates, then the Republican edifice must crumble. 
No such danger menaced the intelligent men who 
colonized New England. The chief function they 
assigned to G-overnment was to preserve order. They 
wanted no laws to favor an individual, or a. class, at the 
expense of the rest. They conferred no power on their 
Delegates, either Executive or Legislative, that could 
jeopardize their persons or property. They conceded 
authority only for a time, and renewed it only when 
satisfied of its proper exercise.* 

* Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts was accused on one occasion 
of arbitrary conduct during his Magistracy. In his reply, he defined 
tne true boundaries of liberty and authority thus : — " Nor would I have 
you to mistake in the point of your own liberty. There is a liberty of 



THE UNITED STATES. 293 

This outline of the Puritan Fathers has been thought 
necessary, since their acts will be better understood 
when their opinions and character are accurately known. 

Let us now return to the career of the Colonies. 
Eapidly springing up north and south, they commenced 
life in three different modes, or under three different 
forms of Grovernment, known as the Charter, Royal, 
and Proprietary Governments. The first was confined 
to New England. These charters or grants of the 
Crown conferred on the Colonists the right of the soil ; 
but in fact the New England Settlements started for 
the most part without sanction from the Mother- 
country, and organized themselves. It is remarkable 
that they enjoyed almost complete independence ; elect- 
ing their magistrates, making peace or war, and enacting 
such "just and equal laws " as they deemed necessary. 

In 1628, the Colony of Massachusetts was settled by 
a company of Puritans from England. In 1631, New 
Hampshire was colonized. In 1635, Connecticut was 
occupied by seceders from Massachusetts. At the same 
period, Eoger Williams, a Clergyman at Salem, was 
expelled from Massachusetts for teaching erroneous 

a cornipt nature, which is affected both by men and beasts to do what 
they list ; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all 
restraint : by this liberty siomus omnes deteriores : 'tis the grand enemy 
of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it. 
But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper end 
and object of authority ; it is a liberty for that only which is just and 
good ; for thfs liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very 
lives, and -whatsoever crosses it is not authority, but a distemper thereof. 
This liberty is maintained by subjection to authoiity, and the authority 
set over you will, in all administrations for your good, be Cjuietly sub- 
mitted unto by all but such as have a disposition to lose their true 
liberty by murmuring at the honor and power of authority." His clear- 
sighted audience accepted this straightforward definition, showing wlien 
liberty degenerated into license, and when authority distended into 
tyranny. He was acquitted by acclamation, and repeatedly re-elected 
Governor. 



294 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

dactrines, and, with a few followers, established himself 
at Providence. In 1637, the Colony of New Haven 
was settled by emigrants from England, and was after- 
wards united to Connecticut. In 1638, Rhode Island 
was settled by a Sect of Antinomians,* who were also 
banished from Massachusetts. 

In 1643, a striking event occurred. The Colonies of 
Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven 
formed a Confederation under the name of "The 
United Colonies of New England " for mutual protec- 
tion against the Indians. By the terms of this Union, 
the internal concerns of each Colony were left to its 
own Government. In war, each was to furnish its 
proportion of men according to its population. The 
affairs of tlie Confederacy were to be conducted by a 
Congress of two Commissioners from each Colony. 

It was this League of the infant Colonies of New 
England for their common defence that led, 133 years 
later, to the Confederation of the Thirteen Colonies 
against the Mother-country. 

Thus we see these Puritan Colonies exercised almost 
entire Sovereignty. They established a pure Democracy ; 
but in modelling it they copied from the Parent-land, 
convinced that there the Supreme Power was sagaciously 
distributed. The Executive was limited to a single 
person — the Governor — and the Legislature was divided 
into two branches — a type of G overnment corresponding 
to that of England, by King, Lords, and Commons. 

Such was the birth of the Puritan Colonies. To 
them belongs the renown of originating the First 

* The Antinomian sect was founded bj' John Agrieola, a contemporary 
of Luther, who taught that *' Evangelical ikith was not necessary for 
salvation." 



THE UNITED STATES. 295 

Republic, if by Eepublic is meant Government by tbe 
Majority. The so-called Eepublics of Greece, Eome, 
and the Middle Ages were all Governments by the 
Minority. The pidnciple of the Sovereignty of the 
People became a reality for the first time when the 
forty-one Puritans set up at Plymouth a Government 
by consent of the whole, or the major part of 
them. 

It was plainly the will of Providence that such a 
Government should rise. The men who undertook it 
were strikingly adapted to the work. The site selected 
was unoccupied by civilized men holding contrary 
opinions. The Mother-country, which alone could 
have checked the experiment, was engrossed by an 
intestine feud that diverted her attention from this 
remote region. Self-government was thus inaugurated. 
Each New England Colony after the other adopted the 
first example. All the political institutions that grew 
out of such a system were successively developed — 
Universal Suffrage ; the Responsibility of Authority ; 
Voting of Taxes ; Personal Liberty ; Trial by Jury. 

These institutions, now the groundwork of several 
Constitutions in Europe, were utterly unknown two 
hundred years ago, save in England, where some of 
them had already budded. Nothing was more natural 
than Universal Suffrage in the Puritan Colonies, as all 
were on a par in condition and sagacity ; nothing more 
logical than the responsibility of those invested with 
power, since all authority emanated from the Majority ; 
nothing more equitable than regulating by Vote the 
expenditure of money for the common good. 

It was the ancestors of these men who disputed 
through centuries the King's right to levy taxes without 



296 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

their consent. But what was easy and just in the 
deserts of America, where men were all on the same 
footing in position and knowledge ; where, still more 
important, the political intelligence of all was so 
great, was simply impossible in the Old World : for 
there men were arranged in classes according to wealth 
and capacity, according to poverty and ignorance — an 
organization which had been maintained for centuries, 
and the premature overthrow of which would be the 
beginning of anarchy. For this reason 'the Puritans 
broke down in England in the seventeenth centm'y. 
For this reason the Puritans succeeded in America in 
the seventeenth century. 

It may be nseful, and perhaps interesting, to 
have dwelt so fully on the extraordinary performances 
of these political Pilgrims to whom belongs for ever 
the Patent for a New Eepublic — the first of its kind, 
and the last of any kind should it unhappily fail. 

The second form of Government under which others 
of the Colonies began was the Royal Government, since 
the Crown named the Governor and a Council, who 
held their places at its will. The Judges and most of 
the other public officers were appointed by the King, 
and subject to his orders. The settlers were allowed 
the right of representation by electing Burgesses. The 
Council constituted the Upper House, and the Bur- 
gesses the Lower one. The Governor had a Veto on 
the acts of both Houses, but no acts took the form 
of law until approved by the King. 

Virginia was first settled in 1607 under the auspices 
of the " London Company," who appointed the Governor 
.ind Council, but in 1619 the Company instructed the 
Governor to order the election of a House of Burgesses 



THE UNITED STATES. 29/ 

by " a majority of voices " to assist the Grovernor and 
Council in managing the Colony. 

James I., displeased at this popular form of Govern- 
ment, dissolved the Company by a writ of quo war- 
7Xcnto, 1624, and assumed the control of the province. 
He appointed a Grovernor and Councillors to govern in 
his name and under his instructions. They were 
authorized to levy taxes ; to transport the Colonists to 
England to be tried for crimes committed in Virginia ; 
to ship all tobacco to England to be delivered to agents 
of the King. 

Charles I. for a time maintained the arbitrary system 
of his father, but afterwards sent a new Governor with 
instructioDS to restore the right of representation to 
the Colony. 

These Royal Governments existed in Virginia, New 
York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The 
Carolinas and Jersey were at first under Proprietary 
Government, but later they became subject to Eoyal 
authority. 

Under the third form of Government, known as the 
Proprietary., the right of the so 1 was conveyed by the 
Crown to certain individuals called Proprietors, as well 
as the power to establish a Body Politic. They ap- 
pointed the Governor and other officials. They organ- 
ized and convened the Legislatiu-e, exercising a Veto on 
its acts. The Proprietors were only responsible to the 
Crown which created them. Their position in fact 
greatly resembled that of the feudal Lords in the 
Middle Ages. 

The territory named Pennsylvania was ceded to 
William Penn by Charles II. in 1681, in lieu of a 
claim on the Crown. 



298 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Perm was a man of culture, integrity, and benevo- 
lence.* Montesquieu called liim the " Modern Lycur- 
gus." He arrived from England in 1682, with 2,000 
emig^rants, and founded Pliiladelphia. lie brought with 
him a form of Government, and a Code of laws prepared 
by himself. The political structure was similar to that 
of the other Colonies — a Governor, Council, and an 
Assembly. 

All these Constitutions, Charter^ Royals Proprietary^ 
endured down to the Eevolution. 

* William Penn was a son of Admiral Sir William Penn. After 
visiting various countries, he joined the Quaker sect on his return to 
England, and was disinherited by his father. He continued to write 
and preach in favor of liberty and conscience, and was twice impri- 
soned in the Tower. Inheriting a claim on the Crown of £"16,000 — 
^80,000 — he took in exchange for it the property and sovereignty of 
the territory " west of the Delaware," which he afterwards colonized. 
He made it an asylum for all sects ; entered into treati* s with the 
Indians which he punctually observed, and abolished slavery. He died 
in England in 1718, at 7^ years of age. 



THE MOTHER-COUNTEY RENOUNCED. 

The infant Colonies had scarcely begun to grow before 
disputes broke out with the Mother-country. 

As might have been expected, the Plymouth Colony 
was the first to make resistance. These spirited men had 
not left their homes to brave the ordeal they were 
enduring only to be subject to a political control they 
had virtually abjured. As early as 1636 — the very 
year that Hampden refused to pay " Ship Money " in 
England — the men of Plymouth declared through their 
Legislature that "no taxes should be imposed but by 
consent of the body of freemen or their representa- 
tives." From this date the principle of " no taxation 
without representation " was established, and Colony 
after Colony as they matured adopted it. In England, 
however, it was maintained that Parliament had the 
power " to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever,'* 
and consequently the right to tax them. 

This was the old quarrel over again with the parties 
changed. The -Nobles and Middle Class in England had 
long contended that the Crown could impose no taxes 
without their consent. The Colonies repeated the same 
constitutional doctrine, and protested that, as British 
subjects. Parliament had no right to tax them without 
their consent. 

This precipitate outcry against taxation arose from 
the dread of the Colonies lest England should extend her 



300 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

jurisdiction over their internal affairs, but the Home 
Grovernment entertained far more practical views. It 
was not the Administrative control of the Colonies it 
aimed at, but simply the amount of Eevenue it could 
extract from them. For this object it was souoht from 
the first to monopolize their trade. Even iis i()21 it 
was ordered that " no tobacco or other productions of 
the Colonies should be carried into any foreign port 
until first landed in England and the customs paid." 

A far more memorable event was the Navigation Act 
of 1651, which ordained that there should be neither 
imports nor exports between England and the Colonies, 
except in English or Colonial vessels. This was meant, 
of course, to exclude all foreign interference with the 
trade. It was further enacted that no productions of 
the Colonies should be exported to any other country 
than to such as belonged to Grreat Britain. 

It is striking that this sweeping measure, v\^hich shut 
out the Colonies from all the world as to their exports, 
was the work of the Puritan House of Commons under 
the supremacy of Oliver Cromwell. The King and 
House of Lords having both disappeared, England was 
wholly under the sway of the Puritan Politicians 
and their stern master —another proof that there is little 
sentiment in politics, for the English Puritans felt no 
delicacy in fleecing their American brethren to the 
uttermost. 

In 1663, Parliament forbade all imports from any 
part of the world to the Colonies, save in English-built 
vessels, and shipped from England direct to the said 
Colonies or Plantations. This monopolizing policy was 
in such entire harmony with the commercial spirit of 
that age, that the oppressed Colonies submitted without 
murmur. 



THE UNITED STATES. 30I 

Their internal trade thus far was free, but to obtain 
more revenue Parliament declared, in 1672, that 
henceforth Duties must be paid on sugar, tobacco, 
cotton, &c., transported from one Colony to another. 
This caused an explosion. Outcries were heard in New 
England against " these invasions of the rights, liberties, 
and properties of the subjects of His Majesty, they not 
being represented in Parliament." This manifest sub- 
ordination of the interests of the Colonies to those of 
the Mother-country made a deadly quarrel between 
them a mere question of time. 

These restrictions on their commerce were bad 
enough, but Colonial manufactures were looming up, 
and the Mother -country grew alarmed. Forthwith 
Parliament began enacting that "no wool, yarn, or 
woollen n^anufactures of the American colonies should 
be shipped or transported to any place whatever." 

In 1732, another edict appeared forbidding New 
England to export hats, extensively manufactured 
there, to Foreign Countries or to the other Colonies. 

In 1750, all Colonial manufactures were declared to 
be " nuisances " which the Governors, under a penalty 
of £500, were required to abate. 

In 1760, regulations still more stringent were issued 
against the trade of the Colonies. 

It may be supposed that the Colonists were exaspe- 
rated at this grasping policy, but so long as taxation 
was external, and fell on them in the shape of Duties, 
they bore it. What they resolved never to tolerate 
was any attempt to tax them internally. This would 
be an interference with their domestic Government, 
which nothing would induce them to brook. 

At last the blow came. In 1765, Parliament passed 
a Law that all obligations in writing, newspapers. 



302 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

pamphlets, &c. in the Colonies must be duly stamped 
and pay a tax accordingly. This was done in spite of 
petitions, remonstrances, and protests. 

The Colonies immediately organized for resistance. 
The Legislature of Massachusetts suggested a Congress 
of Deputies from all the Colonies to meet in New York, 
October 1765, "to consult on the circumstances of 
the Colonies, and measures of relief." The Congress 
promptly assembled, and adopted a Declaration of 
Eights and Grrievances. They called on the King and 
Parliament to repeal the "Stamp Act," and other 
abuses, as well as " the other late Acts for the restric- 
tion of American Commerce." They prepared an 
Address to the King, and a Petition to both Houses of 
Parliament, showing " that Parliament, adhering to 
the principles of the Constitution, have never hitherto 
taxed any but those who were actually therein repre- 
sented." Special agents, of whom Dr. Franklin was 
one, were sent to England with these manifestoes. The 
people met in conclave all over the country, and 
resolved the Stamp Act should never be carried out. 
The merchants of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston 
agreed to order no goods from Great Britain, and 
associations were widely formed against the use of 
British manufactures, and for the encouragement of do- 
mestic fabrics. A phalanx sprung up called the " Sons 
of Liberty," pledged to go to any part of the country 
to resist by force the execution of the Stamp Act. 

Obviously it was this ill-advised Law of Parliament 
that was the entering wedge destined at no distant 
period to sever for ever the connection of the Parent- 
land with her high-spirited Offspring. 

A change in the British Cabinet occurred at this 



THE UNITED STATES. 3O3 

time, and tlie new Administration declared it was not 
their intention "to tax the Colonies without their 
consent." In March, 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed. 

This considerate conduct spread joy through the 
Colonies, but it was soon dampened by a Resolution 
voted by Parliament asserting their power and right 
" to make laws of sufficient force and validity to bind the 
Colonies in all cases luhatsoever" This was simply a 
reiteration of the right of taxation, whether the Colonies 
consented or not. 

This foreboded evil, and it soon came. In 1767, an 
Act was passed imposing Duties on glass, paper, paints, 
and tea imported into the Colonies from Grreat Britain, 
the object of which was declared to be, " to raise a 
revenue in America." 

Hitherto the Colonies had submitted to taxes on their 
commerce in the form of Duties, not because they 
considered them just or Constitutional, but because 
they shrank from a collision with the Mother-country. 
The unity and courage, however, displayed throughout 
the Colonies in opposition to the Stamp Act, and its 
consequent repeal, now emboldened them to repel the 
new Duties. Massachusetts, whose commerce suffered 
the most, led off in the fray. Virginia followed her with 
alacrity. The former tactics were renewed. Petitions 
and addresses were showered on Parliament. Not only 
were the Colonies, said these documents, prohibited 
from importing the commodities and manufactures of 
Europe, except from Great Britain, but the Colonies 
were forbidden by Acts of Parliament even from sending 
their productions to any foreign ports. Both these 
restrictions were heavy taxes on the Colonies. 

The Legislatures of Massachusetts and Virginia were 



3 04 ^ ^V HIS TORICAL RE TROSPE C T. 

both dissolved by the Royal G-overnors for their 
contumacious behaviour. All the Colonies sustained 
Massachusetts and Virginia, and non-importation 
agreements became again universal. 

Parliament succumbed a second time, and all the 
proscribed Duties were repealed in 1770, except on 
tea. An Act was also passed entitling the East 
India Company to a drawback on teas exported to 
America, which would make tea cheaper there than in 
Great Britain. 

These concessions failed. The blood of the Colonists 
was up, and they refused to pay even the Duties on tea. 
Large shipments of it arrived in Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, and other places. The Colonists resolved 
it should not be landed, lest the Duties might be paid, 
and the right of Parliament be thereby acknowledged 
to tax the Colonies without their consent. In New 
York and Philadelphia the consignees refused to 
receive the cargoes, which were ci5nsequently sent 
back to England. In Boston the consignee was more 
pliant, but an enthusiastic meeting at Faneuil Hall 
voted " that the tea should not be landed." On 
adjourning, they repaired en masse to the wharf, when 
suddenly a number of men disguised as " Mohawk 
Indians " boarded the vessels and threw 342 chests of 
tea into the bay. 

This mutinous conduct roused the indignation of 
Parliament. Instead of further conciliation. Act after 
Act of repression was fulminated. The " Boston Port 
Bill " was passed, closing up her harbor to commerce, 
and removing the Custom House to Salem.* Another 

* This Act was loudly condemned in Parliament, but the Minister, 
Lord North, was able to force it throiigh. In London it excited great 



THE UNITED STATES. 305 

Act followed " for better regulating the government 
of the Province of Massachusetts Bay." Still another 
for the "impartial administration of justice in Massa- 
chusetts Bay." It was the purpose of Parliament to 
make the Colony of " Massachusetts Bay " smart for 
her refractory demeanor. A final Bill was passed for 
quartering soldiers on the inhabitants of the Colonies. 

The time had now come for submission to Parlia- 
mentary dictation, or a bold defiance whatever the 
results. 

The Colonists hesitated not a moment. Virginia 
recommended the 1st of June, on which the Port of 
Boston was to be closed, as a day of fasting and prayer. 
It was so observed throughout the Colonies. 

A cry was echoed from all quarters for a Congress, 
and it met in Philadelphia, September, 1774. This 
body published an emphatic Protest against the right of 
G-reat Britain " to tax the Colonies or to interfere with 
their internal afiairs." They also prepared and signed 
an Agreement for themselves and constituents not to 
import or use British goods till the Acts complained of 
should be repealed. 

The determination of Parliament not to retreat from 
its coercive policy rendered appeals and remonstrances 
alike unavailing. A struggle seemed inevitable, and 
the Colonies prepared for it. Gunpowder was manu- 
factured, the Militia was trained, and military stores 
collected. 

In April, 1775, the British General, Gage, at Boston, 
sent troops to destroy a magazine of supplies at Concord. 

indignation in the commercial world, and £30,000 — j^l 50,000 — was 
subscribed for those who would be thrown out of employment at 
Boston. 

U 



306 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

At Lexington the Militia were drawn up to intercept 
them. A collision ensued, and eight of the militiamen 
fell. 

This incident vibrated like an electric shock through 
the Colonies. Up to this moment the contest had been 
political. It suddenly became a conflict of arms. 

The Colonies had always hoped to compromise these 
difficulties with England without violence or separation. 
This, however, was not the expectation or the purpose 
of the sagacious Politicians of New England. They 
were convinced there was no remedy for Colonial 
wrongs but in complete Independence. It was not 
merely the commercial oppression of the Mother- 
country that nerved them to resistance, but still more 
the determination to establish that Democratic Govern- 
ment which their forefathers had inaugurated at Ply- 
mouth in 1620. All New England, therefore, secretly 
rejoiced at the arrogant policy of England, which was 
sure to drive the Colonies to revolt. 

Massachusetts was active in her preparations for 
military resistance, and eagerly awaited an opportunity 
to abandon merely political opposition, and resort to 
open war. The occasion* came when General Gage 
sent, as stated, a detachment to Concord. Massachusetts 
rallied her militiamen, and the coveted blow was struck. 
The struggle for Independence then began. 

Astonishment and anger filled the Colonies, but 
Massachusetts was ready for the emergency. Three 
days after the affray at Lexington, her Legislature called 
on New England to raise an army of 30,000 men. Ten 
days later 20,000 men were encamped around Boston, 
which was occupied by the King's Governor and army. 
Soon afterwards volunteer expeditions from Connecticut 



THE UNITED STATES. 30/ 

and Vermont pounced upon theEoyal fortresses of Ticon- 
deroga and Crown Point, where cannon and ammunition, 
greatly needed, were obtained. 

This rapid action proves how thoroughly prepared 
were the political leaders of New England for the crisis 
they so earnestly desired. 



V8 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 

In the midst of the fermentation of these events, the 
second Colonial Congress met at Philadelphia, May, 
1775. Its Members as a matter of policy were disposed 
to temporize with Great Britain, and voted an Address 
to the King and Parliament, calling for a redress of 
grievances, and depicting the evils of separation. At 
the saine time they began to organize for the bloody 
ordeal that seemed approaching. In the name of the 
" United Colonies " tliey set to work to raise an army, 
equip a navy, and to devise financial resom'ces. The 
New England forces around Boston were adopted as the 
Colonial army, and at the suggestion of the New England 
Delegates, Greorge Washington of Virginia was nomi- 
nated Commander-in-Chief. 

Before he left Philadelphia to take command another 
decisive event occurred. The British General in Boston 
decided to seize and fortify Bunker's Hill. To prevent 
tliis the Americans threw up a redoubt in the night of 
the 16th of June, 1775, and the following morning the 
British troops to the number of 3,000, all veterans, as- 
saulted it. After twice repulsing them, the Americans 
from want of ammunition retired. The British confessed 
a loss of over 1,000 men killed and wounded, whilst 
the American loss was only 449 killed, wounded, and 



THE UNITED STATES. 309 

prisoners. Unlike the fight at Lexington, this was a 
regular pitched battle, and though badly armed and 
supplied the Colonists displayed a spirit that augured 
badly for British supremacy in America. The cannon 
of Bunker's Hill reverberated from Boston to Greorgia. 

The cry to arms was loud but not unanimous, though 
compromise was almost despaired of. Great Britain 
declared the Colonies " in a state of rebellion," and pre- 
pared to reduce them to obedience. 

In December, 1775, Parliament interdicted all trade 
with the Colonies, and ordered the capture of all Ameri- 
can vessels and other vessels trading in any port of 
the Colonies. 

At the close of this year the Colonists organized an 
expedition against Canada under Greneral Montgomery, 
which was abandoned some months afterwards. 

In March, 1776, the British army evacuated Boston 
and sailed for Halifax. This was a signal triumph for 
the Colonial cause. 

British cruisers repeatedly attacked various points on 
the coast. In June, they assaulted Charleston, South 
Carolina, but were driven off with loss. 

The war between England and her Colonies was now 
fully inaugm-ated. It had been going on for over a year. 
The Colonies had no alternative but abject submission 
or desperate resistance. Yet, strange to say, some of 
the more influential seemed to shrink at a final 
separation from the Mother-country. When in June, 
1776, Eichard Henry Lee introduced his Kesolution in 
the Congress at Philadelphia that " the United Colonies 
are and ought to be free and independent States, and 
that their political connection with Grreat Britain is and 
ought to "be dissolved,"Pennsylvania and South Carolina 



3IO AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

voted against the Eesolution, Delaware was divided, and 
New York declined to vote. Nine Colonies, howeveV, 
sustained it, and a committee was chosen to draft a 
Declaration of Independence. The firmness of New 
England, and the ardor of Virginia, finally overcame 
all doubts and scruples, and the Vote for Independence 
was passed unanimously by the Thirteen Colonies on 
July 4th. 

It cannot be asserted that all men were unanimous 
in their desire to renounce the Government of the 
Mother-country. New England was chiefly eager for 
Independence : first, because her spirit was always 
Eepublican* ; and next, because her commerce being 
the most extensive was the most damaged by the im- 
posts of Great Britain. Many of the leading men of 
the other Colonies of the political, professional, and 
mercantile world, also secretly aimed at emancipation, 
as they believed their prosperity would be thereby 
promoted. " It was the independent and enlightened 
classes of society," remarks Guizot, " who had to sustain 
and invigorate the people in the great struggle in which 
their country was engaged. The magistrates, the 
wealthy planters, the great merchants, and the officers 
of the army, constantly showed themselves the firmest 
and most ardent adherents of the cause. They gave 
their example no less than their advice, and the popu- 
lace instead of urging them on, hardly followed in their 
track." 

This important statement is corroborated by the 
frequent complaints of Washington of the lukewarmness 

* "Wlipn Charles II. was restored, there was general satisfaction in 
all the Colonies save New England, which welconifd the regicides Goff 
and Whalley, and forbade any rejoicings for the return of the King. 



THE UNITED ST A TES. 3 1 1 

and disaffection of the people. In fact, popular opinion 
was so divided as to the expediency of a Ee volution, 
that the most conspicuous public men considered it 
prudent not too openly to endorse it. As late as October, 
1774, Washington wrote to Captain Mackenzie : — " You 
are taught to believe that the people of Massachusetts 
are rebellious — setting up for independence and what 
not. Give me leave to tell you, my good friend, that 
you are abused, grossly abused. I think I can announce 
it as a fact that it is not the wish or interest of that 
Government-^Massachusetts — or any other on this 
continent, separately or collectively, to set up for inde- 
pendence, but at the same time, you may rely on it 
that none will ever submit to the loss of those valuable 
rights and privileges which are essential to the happiness 
of every free State." 

In less than a year from the date of this letter, the 
writer was commanding the Colonial army before 
Boston. Had events so utterly outrun the forecast of 
Washington ; or was he still, in October, 1775, a disbe- 
liever in Independence ; or did he consider it obligatory 
in 1774 to conceal his real convictions? 

In the beginning of 1775, John Adams pubxicly 
declared in Boston : — " That there are any who pant 
after independence, is the greatest slander on the 
Provinces." He also asserted on another occasion : — 
" That there existed a general desire for independence 
of the Crown in any part of America before the revolu- 
tion is as far from the truth as the zenith from the 
nadir. For my own part there was not a moment 
during the revolution when I would not have given 
every thing I possessed for a restoration to the state of 
things before the contest began, provided we could 
have had a sufficient security for its continuance." 



3 1 2 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Franklin wrote in March, 1775 : — " I have assured 
Lord Chatham that having travelled more than once 
almost from one end of the continent to the other, and 
kept a great variety of company, eating, drinking, and 
conversing with them freely, I never had heard in any 
conversation with any person, drunk or sober, the least 
expression of a wish for a separation, or a hint that such 
a thing would be advantageous to America." 

In November, 1775, five months after the battle of 
Bunker's Hill, Jetferson wrote : — " Believe me, dear 
Sir, there is not in the British empire a man who more 
cordially loves an union with Great Britain than I do. 
But, by the Grod that made me, I will cease to exist 
before I yield to a connexion on such terms as the 
British Parliament proposes, and in this I think I speak 
the sentiments of America. AVe want neither induce- 
ment nor power to declare or assert a separation. It is 
will cdone ivhich is ivaiiting, and that is growing apace 
under the fosterino' hand of our Kins;."* 

These significant extracts prove that to the last it 
wasnecessaryto entice the Colonies to make a Revolution, 
which might lead to unknown disasters. Guizot alludes 
to the hesitation which seized on many before taking 
the final plunge. " It was not for the purpose," he 
says, " of escaping from the fangs of some atrocious 
tyranny that the insurrection was begun by the Colonists. 
They had not, like the PilgTim-Fathers when they fled 
the English shores, to recover the first blessings of civil 
liberty, security for their persons, or liberty for their 
creed." The Colonists were exasperated, it is true, by 

* In February 1776, Tom Paine published in Philadelphia a pamphlet 
entitled " Common Sense," urging the Colonies in cogent, yet temperate 
language, to separate from England. He found it necessary to appeal 
to the reason, rather than the passion of the public. 



THE UNITED STATES. 313 

the vexatious interference of Parliament with their 
trade, but in the main they were contented and loyal. 
They knew that all the great Statesmen of England, 
Chatham, Burke, Fox, were their champions in Parlia- 
ment. They were aware that the sympathies of the 
English people were enlisted on their side.* 

I think it may be inferred from the foregoing that 
the Ee volution was not the work of the people of 
the Colonies generally, who had no hatred for the 
Eoyal Government, or any preference for a more Demo- 
cratic organization of which they knew nothing. Of 
course, I except the New England States, whose Eepub- 
licanism, and whose commercial interests, as previously 
remarked, inspired them with a profound craving after 
Independence. They were the real pioneers of the 
Eevolution. In the other Colonies, Gruizot observes 
that " the upper classes of society chiefly plotted for 
emancipation, expecting that great material advantages 
would accrue, and knowing that all political functions 
would fall into their hands." It may be doubted, 
therefore, if the Eevolution would have occurred for 
long years if it had not been stimulated by the arrogant 
obstinacy of a single man, Greorge III., who refusing 
to yield to the temperate demands of the Colonies for a 
change of policy, brought on a war which was destined 
not merely to deprive England of her richest Depend- 
encies, but to create a New Nation, and a New System of 
Government whose effects on the world defy calculation. 

* This was proved when the British Government found themselves 
obliged to hire troops in Germany, especially in Hesse, since the English 
people generally refused to enlist in the war against the Colonies. 

14 



THE WAR. 

Some months before the Declaration of Independence 
the Royal Governors of the Colonies began to withdraw, 
and the Colonists proceeded to construct anew their 
Unocal Governments. Legislatures were elected consist- 
ing, as before, of two branches^ and these in turn 
elected the Governor of the State. The Thirteen 
Colonies were now suddenly transformed into so many 
Sovereign States. They were not only independent of 
Great Britain, but independent of each other. 

This condition of things soon filled the political 
leaders of the Revolution with the utmost alarm. 

The young States were so proud of their Sovereignty 
that no one would be advised by the other. They 
began to think only of their individual interest, and to 
ignore the common good of all. To be sure, they were 
enoaoed in a war that threatened all alike. The 
general danger demanded harmonious action. Yet 
jealousies broke out and mistrust of each other began 
to spread. 

^Yhat was -) be the fate of these infant States ? 
Were they destined to imitate the ancient States of 
Greece, and waste themselves in fratricidal conflicts till 
swallowed up by a modern Philip of Macedon ? Europe 
contemplated the result with interest, if not anxiety. 

Such was the general dislike of England, that every 
nation of Europe was pleased at the probable loss of 



THE UNITED STATES. 315 

her Colonies. France and Spain more especially, 
enraged at their expulsion from the American Conti- 
nent, 1763, were eager to aid the rebellious States and 
only waited for a favorable opportunity. Various 
maritime Powers, as Holland, Grenoa, Naples, and 
Tuscany, from jealousy of the commercial ascendency 
of England, S3'mpathized with the Eevolutionists. Even 
Prussia and Eussia, from envy of England, affected to 
condemn her deportment to her Colonies. 

If the Statesmen of Europe could have possibly divined 
the astounding political results fated to spring from the 
Revolution they were patting so complacently on the 
back, it is hardly to be doubted that they would have 
been more eaoer than Enoiand herself to crush it in 
the bud. If the ghost of George III. takes any interest 
in passing events, it must be consoled at the havoc that 
the Democratic principles hatched in the American 
Revolution are making in the countries that plotted 
against him. 

For more than a year after the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the Revolution was in constant danger of 
failure. Washington left Boston a victor, and brought 
his army to New York. In June, 1776, Greneral Howe 
landed at Staten Island with a considerable force, which 
was soon augmented to 30,000 men. Washington's 
raw and ill-supplied levies were no match for such an 
army. In August, the campaign began with a battle 
on Long Island which the Americans lost. Washing- 
ton then began a retreat which he was obliged to 
continue, until in December he foimd himself on the 
south side of the Delaware river at the head of less than 
4,000 men, without tents, blankets, clothing, or food. 
So desperate had become the prospects of the Revolu- 



3 1 6 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT, 

tion, that great numbers abandoned it and accepted 
the British G-eneral's offer of pardon and amnesty. 
Despondency seized the most confident, and the Eebei- 
lion seemed on the verge of utter discomfiture. 

Worst of all, the Congress that was still sitting at 
Philadelphia could do nothing. It was composed of 
Delegates from the thirteen new States, but they had 
no authority to enforce their opinions. They could do 
no act without orders from their resi^ective States : their 
only mission was to vote piteous appeals to the various 
Legislatures to furnish men and money to carryonthewar. 

The States were now all Sovereign, as said before, 
and independent of each other. There were rivalry 
of interests, and suspicion of motives. Many of them, 
too, were alarmed at raising a large army that might 
subjugate them again. 

In this grave situation the difficulty was to induce 
them to act in concert. The political leaders saw it was 
imperatively necessary that the States should give their 
Delegates in Congress powers of some sort to sustain 
the war, and provide for the common welfare. The 
States hesitated to do this, lest Congress might obtain 
an ascendency over them. They were so jealous of 
their new Sovereignty, that they shrank from parting 
with the least portion of it. They feared lest Congress 
might become a sort of Central Authority, a kind of 
National Government, which might act contrary to their 
wishes and interests. 

This was the gloomy condition of the rebellious 
States at the end of 1776. The helpless Members of 
Congress must have often fancied the halter round their 
necks. All they could do was to encourage Washington, 
and to implore their States to save the cause. 



THE UNITED ST A TES. 3 I / 

A gleam of hope suddenly lit up the horizon. The 
British army, consisting in part of Hessian merce- 
naries, was encamped at Trenton, New Jersey. On the 
opposite bank of the river, which was clioked with ice, 
were posted Washington and his half-starved followers. 
The British and their German allies devoted the Christ- 
mas of 1776 to feasting and festivity. Plunged at night 
in the stupor of drunken sleep, the opportunity was 
irresistible. Washington embarked his dispirited 
Militia, and pushed over the river during the darkness 
in the face of a snowstorm. At daylight he fell on ihe 
stupefied enemy, put them to flight, and captured 
1,000 Hessians. He followed them to Princeton, and 
two days later, January, 1777, defeated them again. 

This double success rescued the sinking Pevolution, 
and Washington was able to recruit his army to 7,000 
men. The British General made every effort to bring 
on a general engagement, but the wary Washington 
skilfully eluded his purpose, knowing his ill-trained 
Militia was unfit to cope with an enemy so superior in 
discipline and numbers. 

General Howe then withdrew from New Jersey, 
sailed with 16,000 men for Chesapeake Bay, and 
landing on Elk river, threatened Philadelphia. To 
protect the Capital, Washington made his way to 
Delaware, where he was defeated in the battle of 
Brandywine, September, 1777. The British then 
marched on Philadelphia, and Congress made a pre- 
cipitate retreat to York, a town in the interior. 

Hoping to retrieve himself Washington attacked 
the British army at Germantown near Philadelphia, in 
October, and was again repulsed. 

The gloom of these disasters was relieved by a grand 



3l8 . AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

event. A British army, nearly 10,000 strong, led by 
General Burgoyne, entered the State of New York from 
Canada, and met at Saratoga an American force under 
General Gates. Two battles ensued which led to the 
capitulation of Burgoyne and his army. 

This brilliant result decided the fortunes of the war. 
It turned despondency into exultation at home, while 
the effect abroad was momentous. France was now 
encouraged openly to assist the American Eebellion, 
and to agree to a Treaty of Alliance. 

In November of this year, 1777, the States were 
induced to venture on a more cordial co-operation, and 
consented to enter into a " Confederation " with each 
other. Articles were drawn up and signed, July, 1778, 
by which they agreed to concede to their Delegates in 
Congress certain powers which were designated. They 
refused, however, to grant the only two rights that 
were essential. They would not allow Congress to 
assess and collect taxes : each State reserved to itself 
this privilege. Congress might vote money, but it 
belonged to the States to raise it through their own 
Legislatures. Congress therefore was always on its 
knees supplicating the States to furnish means which 
came slowly, or not at all. If it had not been for 
the loans made to Congress by Holland and France, 
the Revolution must have collapsed. The second 
right, as indispensable to Congress as levying and 
collecting taxes, was to regulate trade and commerce 
by imposing a uniform scale of Duties. The States 
would not listen to such a proposition. To give up 
the right to regulate their own trade according to their 
interests was tantamount, they said, to abdicating tiieir 
Sovereignty altogether. Each insisted on imposing its 



THE UNITED S TA TES. 3 1 9 

own Duties, not only on foreign goods, but on the pro- 
ductions of the sister States. The Thirteen Independent 
States entrenched themselves behind their respective 
custom-houses, and trade was as much or more harassed 
than when they were in a Colonial condition. The 
consequences were rivalries and resentments sure to 
lead sooner or later to serious results. 

Nevertheless, the leaders of the Eevolution thought 
it wise to unite the States in a Confederation, however 
defective, in order to accustom them to act together. 
They hoped a better knowledge of their interests would 
induce them some day to create a Central Authority or 
National Grovernment with the requisite powers to 
promote the common welfare. 

The sagacity and moderation of the Statesmen of the 
Eevolution surmounted stupendous difficulties. If the 
leaders in Congress had not acted in perfect accord, 
all would have been lost. To be sure, their lives de- 
pended on success, and this enforced the utmost for- 
bearance. 

A proof that the new Confederation of the States 
did little for tlie situation may be seen in the following 
statement of Washington. He was encamped the 
winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, twenty miles from 
Philadelphia, and in a touching application for aid to 
the President of Congress he wrote :^" We have by a 
field-return, this day made, no less than 2,898 men 
now in camp unfit for duty, because they are barefoot 
and otherwise naked. We find gentlemen, without 
knowing whether the army was really going into winter- 
quarters or not, reprobating the measure as mucli as 
if they thought the soldiers were made of stocks and 
stones, and equally insensible to frost and snow ; and 
moreover, as if they conceived it easily practicable for 



320 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

an inferior army, under the disadvantages which I have 
described ours to be, and which are by no means 
exaggerated, to confine a superior one — in all respects 
well appointed and provided for a winter campaign — 
within the city of Philadelphia, and to cover from 
depredation and waste the States of Pennsylvania and 
Jersey. I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much 
easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances 
in a comfortable room by a good fireside, than to 
occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and 
snow without clothes or blankets. However, although 
they seem to have little feeling for the naked and dis- 
tressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and 
from my soul I pity those miseries which it is neither 
in my power to relieve or prevent." 

Congress could make no other response to such an 
appeal than to invoke the Thirteen States to come to 
the General's rescue, and to authorize him to obtain all 
the assistance he could from the various local Grovern- 
ments. 

The want of men and money at this dreary juncture 
was not Washington's sole embarrassment. The only hope 
of Congress and the country was in the army, and its 
condition may be seen in the following graphic sketch : — 
" In the army itself, which was the object of so much 
distrust to the States, the strongest spirit of insubordi- 
nation and democracy prevailed. Every order was dis- 
puted. Every detachment aspired to act on its own 
account, and to consult its own convenience. The 
troops of the different States would obey no generals 
but their own, aiid the soldiers no officers not directly 
chosen or appointed by themselves. The day after a 
defeat which was to be repaired, or a victory to be fol- 
lowed up, whole regiments disbanded themselves, and 



THE UNITED S TA TES. 3 2 1 

retired without even consenting to wait a few days 
until their successors arrived." 

Thus, with discord between the States, insubordina- 
tion in the army, disaffection among the people, trade 
paralyzed, a depreciated paper-currency,* the most 
sanguine might well despair of the Eevolution. 

It was not alone the firmness or ability of the leaders 
in Conq-ress from the North and the South which carried 
the Revolution through such tremendous obstacles. To 
Washington more than to anyone else was dvie the final 
success. Nor was it achieved merely by his superior 
intellect or military skill, but rather by a marvellous 
combination of qualities which imparted to his character 
a moral grandeur that inspired respect and commanded 
esteem. His patience, prudence, disinterestedness, 
firmness, and forbearance never failed, although these 
traits were daily put to the severest tests. A tranquil 
dignity and strict decorum uniformly characterized his 
deportment and language. Through all his actions 
and his utterances written or verbal might be discerned 
the steady light of a conscientiousness that never 
flickered nor waned. Since the days of Socrates no 
character so perfectly proportioned and happily blended 
had appeared ; and it may be doubted if the Athenian 
philosopher, who accepted death to prove his deference 
for law, underwent a more cruel ordeal than did Wash- 
ington, who from an equally exalted motive contended 
serenely for years with trials almost superhuman. The 
admirable balance of his mind and character is happily 
portrayed in the lines of Shakespeare : — 

*From June, 1775, to November, 1779, Congress authorized the issue 
of 2d6 millious of dollars in paper, generally known as *' Contiuen 
money." 



322 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

"And the elements 
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up, 
And say to all the world, This was a man." 

In the spring of 1778 came the intelligence that 
France had signed a Treaty of Alliance, and would 
despatch a fleet to aid the struggling States. No 
wonder the wretched soldiers of " Valley Forge " fired 
off their cannon and joyfully shouted in honor of the 
French King, Louis XVI. 

The French Alliance startled Greorge III., and Par- 
liament hastened to repeal all the obnoxious Acts against 
their late Colonies. Commissioners were sent out to 
negotiate a reconciliation, but Congress refused to treat 
except on the basis of Independence. 

In June, 1778, the British evacuated Philadelphia, 
and marched for New York. Washington followed 
them across New Jersey, and on the 28th of the same 
month a battle ensued at Monmouth. The Americans 
remained masters of the field, and the enemy fell back 
on New York. A French fleet under Count d'Estaing 
had arrived, and in August co-operated in an attack on 
the British forces in Rhode Island, which failed. 

The war was carried on principally at the South 
during 1779, and by the middle of the summer, Greorgia 
was occupied by the British. During this year also, 
Spain declared war against England. French and 
American cruisers at this period were inflicting heavy 
losses on English commerce. In September of this 
year, Paul Jones, a Scotchman, who was in the American 
service, captured two English frigates with his single 
ship in one battle. 

The war was actively pursued at the South during 
1780. Charleston surrendered to the British in May, 
and South Carolina was subsequently overrun. 



THE UNITED STATES. 323 

An important event happened in July of this year. 
A second French fleet, under tlie Count de Rochambeau, 
arrived at Newport, E. I., bringing 6,000 trained 
soldiers. In September, Washington went to Hartford 
to devise a plan of operations with the French Com- 
mander. It was at this period that the treason of 
Benedict Arnold was discovered. He had agreed to 
deliver the fortress of West Point to the British Greneral 
at New York. 

At the close of tliis year England declared war against 
Holland, which was negotiating a Treaty of Alliance 
-with the United States. 

The chief military operations of 1781 were still at 
the South. Various conflicts occurred in both the 
Carolinas, in wliich the Americans had the advantaae. 

The grand event of this campaign, howev^er, was the 
siege of Yorktown. The American army of the North 
vmder Washington, and the French army under Count 
de Eochambeau, had agreed on a junction ostensibly 
to attack the British in New York, but instead, the 
Allies, about 12,000 strong, made their way to Virginia, 
and besieged Lord Cornwallis in Yorktown. The 
attack began September 28th, and on October 19th, 
Cornwallis capitulated with all his force, some 7,000 
men. 

This was the crowning victory, for its effect in Eng- 
land forced Lord North, the tool of the King, to retire 
from the Grovernment ; and the new Cabinet, of which 
Fox was the leading Minister, ordered hostilities against 
the United States to cease, April, 1782. Congress then 
appointed Commissioners to negotiate for peace, and in 
November, 1782, a Preliminary Treaty was signed in 
Paris, and in September, 1783, a Definitive Treaty fol- 

X 2 



324 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

lowed in which Great Britain acknowledged the United 
States to be Free, Sovereign, and Independent. 

In November, 1783, New York, the last stronghold of 
the British, was evacuated. 

The younger Pitt spoke of this war as " a detested 
and impious quarrel, conceived in iujustice, and 
nmtured in folly, and whose footsteps were marked 
with slaughter and devastation." 

In the six years of active warfare, from the conflict 
at Lexington to the surrender at Yorktown, Great 
Britain sent to America 112,000 soldiers and some 
22,000 seamen. The troops raised by the United 
States during the same period consisted of 230,000 
continental soldiers, and 56,000 militia.* 

In November, 1783, \Yashington issued a Farewell 
Address to the army of the United States, and in 
December resigned his Commission. 

* These fit^ures are copied from an able and comprehensive article on 
the United States in the " New American Encyclopedia," Vol. XV. 



FAILURE OF THE CONFEDERATION. 

The state of things which followed the peace by no 
means responded to the expectations of the leaders of 
the Eevolution, or the hopes of the people. The 
States were overwhelmed with debts contracted in the 
Old World and the New. The taxes which were to meet 
these liabilities had not been levied by the States. 
The only circulating medium was a depreciated paper- 
currency. Gold and silver were scarcely known. Some 
of the States passed laws which conflicted with those of 
other States ; some levied Duties detrimental to their 
neighbours ; and adjacent ports in different States 
competed with each other by lowering the rate of 
imposts. The various States yielded more and more 
to animosities, mistrust, and selfish views. Congress 
under the " Articles of Confederation " was powerless, as 
it had no right to legislate for the whole country, to 
reconcile discordant interests, or mitigate the dissensions 
of the jealous States. 

A continuance of these evils involved civil war and 
ultimate anarchy. In Massachusetts an Insurrection 
known as " Shay's Eebellion " broke out against the 
State Government. When this news reached W^ashington, 
he exclaimed : — " What, gracious God, is man, that there 
should be such inconsistency and perfidiousness in his 
conduct ! It was but the other day that we were shed- 
ding our blood to obtain the Constitutions under which 



326 AN HIS TORICA L RE TROSPE C T. 

we live; Constitutions of our own choice and maldng; 
and now we are unsheathing the sword to overturn 
them." Deep discontent was universal. Manufactures 
drooped ; agriculture declined ; trade deca^^ed. In 
Europe the reputation of the United States was rapidly 
sinkino". It was doubted if the United States as a 
Nation would ever exist at all. " I think often of oiu: 
situation," wrote Washington, " and view it with alarm. 
From the high ground we stood upon, from the plain 
path which invited our footsteps, to be so fallen, so lost, 
is really mortifying. I feel infinitely more than I can 
express the disorders which have arisen in these States. 
Good God, who besides a Tory could have foreseen, or a 
Briton have predicted them ? " 

It was plain to all that unless some strong and better 
organization than the " Articles of Confederation " 
could be found ; unless some Central Power, some General 
Government could be devised that would superintend 
the interests of all the States, and legislate for their 
mutual benefit ; then, all hope of these clashing States 
being moulded into a great and prosperous Nation must 
be -abandoned. " We have probably had," declared 
Washington, " too good an opinion of human nature in 
forming our Confederation. Experience has taught us 
that men will not adopt, and carry into execution, 
measures the best calculated for their own good, with- 
out the intervention of a coercive potuer. 1 do not. 
conceive we can long exist as a Nation without having 
lodged somewhere a power which will pervade the 
whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority 
of the State Governments extends over the several 
States." 

Amid all his anxiety and alarm Washington seemed 



THE UNITED STATES. 32/ 

never to despair. " I do not believe," lie wrote to 
Lafayette in 1788, "that Providence has done so much 
for nothing. It has always been my creed that we 
should not be left as a monument to prove that mankind, 
under the most favorable circumstances for civil 
liberty and happiness, are unequal to the task of 
governing themselves, and therefore made for a master." 
Again he wrote ; — " No country upon earth ever had it 
more in its power than United America to establish 
good order and government, and to render the nation 
happy at home, and respectable abroad. Wondrously 
strange and sad would it be were we to neglect the 
means, and depart from the road which Providence has 
pointed out to us so plainly. I cannot believe it will 
ever come to pass. The Great Governor of the Universe 
has led us too long and too far on the road of happiness 
and glory to forsake us in the midst of it." 

Finally, the exhortations of Washington, the influence 
of the leading public men, love of country, dread of 
the pity or the derision of Europe, the necessity of order, 
the salvation of their interests — all contributed to 
induce and compel the people of the States to abandon 
their abortive Confederation, and establish a new bond 
of union in the shape of a Federal Government with 
the necessary vitality to remedy past evils and provide 
against future dangers. 

It was under this pressure that a Convention of Dele- 
gates from all the States met in Philadelphia, May, 
1*787, and began their constitutional alchemy. Their 
task was indeed a solemn one. If the new political 
structure were no better than the last, then the Thirteen 
Independent States would surely live to regret the loss 
of the Mother-Government. 



328 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

The Convention elected Washington their President, 
and for four months sat every day with closed doors. It 
was a short gestation for so marvellous a product. The 
danger was that the sticklers for State Sovereignty 
would refuse as before to create a Greneral Grovernment 
that might control or hamper the independence of the 
various States. The influence of Washington, the 
wisdom of the political leaders, and, beyond doubt, the 
pressure of popular opinion removed this stumbling 
block ; and the result was a piece of political mechanism 
such as had never issued from the hand of man. Pro- 
found thinkers in their philosophic reveries have 
conjured up a political phenomenon like the American 
Constitution, but never yet had it taken shape or become 
a reality in the history of mankind. 

Before calling attention to its striking merits and 
pointing out its marked originality, I will briefly state 
that it remedied the glaring defects of the old Confedera- 
tion by giving to the new Federal Grovernment the right 
to collect revenue for national purposes, and the right 
to regulate commerce by imposing uniform duties for 
all the States. The coercive power, which Washington 
remarked the State Grovernments possessed in order to 
maintain their authority, was also conferred on the new 
Central Grovernment, so that it might, if needs were, 
compel a contumacious State to live in harmony with 
its brethren. 

These were important concessions to the augmented 
spirit of union, but an object of far higher value than 
these was secured. The last Union was only an Union of 
the States — independent and sovereign States ; a League 
of the various State Grovernments, and nothing more. 
This was just the crying faultof the recent Confederation ; 



THE UNITED STATES. 329 

whereas now the purpose was to create an Union, not of 
the States, but of the 'people of the States. The new 
Constitution be;];*an, " We, the people of the United 
States," whilst the late Confederation was signed by its 
framers " as Delegates of the States." A protest was 
made by Patrick Henry, and those of his political creed, 
against this innovation. " Who authorized them, the 
Members of the Federal Convention," he demanded, " to 
speak the language of, ' We, the people,' instead of 
' We, the States ' ? If the States be not the agents 
of this compact, it must be one great consolidated 
national government of the people of all the States." 

This interpretation was true. Yet how strange that 
such men as Patrick Henry, Jefferson, and other good 
patriots should still cling to State Sovereignty, when 
it had been so clearly demonstrated that unless the 
States gave up enough of their independence to consti- 
tute a National Government invested with a coercive 
jpoiver, they would surely drift into collision ending in 
anarchy. 

The majority of the framers of the new Constitution 
knew that the people of all the States comprehended 
the perils of their position, and demanded such a reform 
of the General Government as would secure order and 
protect their common interests, whilst it left the autho- 
rity of the States unrestricted within their own borders. 
In deference to popular sentiment the minority of 
crotchety Politicians, both in the Federal and State 
Conventions, gradually abandoned their opposition and 
the new Constitution was adopted. 



THE NEW CONSTITUTION. 

The National Grovernment established by this instrument 
was fashioned after the various State Grovernments, 
which consisted of an Executive, and a Legislature 
divided into two branches — a political organization 
which had been imported, as shown, by the Colonists 
from the Mother-country, where an Executive, and a 
Legislature in two branches, had long existed under 
the style and title of King, Lords, and Commons. 

This theory of dividing the Supreme Power between 
an Executive, and a Legislatm-e representing the Upper 
and Lower Classes, grew out of the history of England, 
as heretofore described. It is the only theory on which 
durable Grovernment can be based in modern times. In 
the ancient world no such Government was possible, for 
though the Executive or Monarch, and the Upper Class 
or Aristocracy existed, yet the Lower Class or People had 
no leaal beino-. It was not until the House of Commons 
rose in England that the People were politically born. 

Tliese three ingredients of all society are eternal. 
In the ancient, as in the modern world, we find in 
all communities the Monos,* the natural Monarch, 

* The familiar Greek words Moyws meaning — single or alone; 
Aristoi, the plural o? Ar/sfos, signifying — the best ; and Demos expressing 
— the mass, are used in the text as best adapted to explain my meaning. 
From a compound of Monos with Archo — I rule, is derived the English, 
•word. Monarchy ; and from compounds of Aristos and Demos with 
Krateo — I govern, we have the English words, Aristocracy and Demo- 
cracy. 



THE UNITED ST A TES. 3 3 I 

the dominant intellect, the " one man-power," as 
familiarly styled in the United States. Next in 
universality come the Aristoi, the natural Aristocracy, 
the governing intellects, the class of higher intelli- 
gences. Finally, follow the Demos, the Democracy, the 
mass, the sovereignty of number. 

As just stated, this third element was not known in 
Government till events in English history gave it a 
voice over its own destiny. We saw in the ancient 
Asiatic, African, and European civilizations, that the 
masses were regarded simply as " hewers of wood, and 
drawers of water " ; and in this condition they continued 
down to the thirteenth century, 1265 of our era, with- 
out rights, power, or security. 

The Eebellion of the American Colonies transferred 
the Supreme Power from the English Grovernment to the 
Mass. At this juncture arose the Monos, the natural 
Monarch, in the person of Washington ; at the same 
moment appeared the A^nstoi, the intellectual Aristo- 
cracy, in the form of a Congress ; and both conceded its 
just share in the Government to the Demos, or Mass. 
The ignorance of the Mass had up to this time always 
entailed upon them the loss of their part in the Supreme 
Power. 

It was these three elements combined that carried 
the Eevolution to victory, in spite of the clumsy 
structure of the " Articles of Confederation," which 
assigned no constitutional sphere of action to the 
Monarchical and Democratic elements. The Congress 
of that day simply represented the Aristocratic class of 
the Colonies, the leading intellects. Such a Body long 
governed the various so-called Italian Republics of the 
Middle Ages, but could not permanently survive amid 



332 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

a Democracy so enliglitened as that of the American 
Colonies. 

Down to this period history presented but two forms 
of Government — that of Monarchy, where the Supreme 
Power was wielded by a single ruler ; or that of Aris- 
tocracy, where the Supreme Power was vested in the 
hands of a few. Under either of these original forms, 
if beneficently administered, the welfare of the 
governed would be secured. 

The experience of ages, however, has proved that 
unlimited poiuer in the hands of either a single man, 
or a group of men, is sure to be abused ; such is the 
inherent weakness of human nature. The Plantagenet 
Kings of England obeying these natural instincts, 
tyrannized just as other Monarchs of all ages had done, 
but by the combination of circumstances already de- 
scribed * their despotism was curbed, and the political 
advent of the People was the result. Since that 
day these three constituent elements — the Monos, the 
Aristoi, and the Demos — have not only co-existed in 
England, but have struggled with each other for the 
possession of the Supreme Power, 

It is renown enough for England to have given a 
legal birth-right to the People by associating her Com- 
mons in the Grovernment with the Aristocracy and 
Monarchy. If she has not yet succeeded in providing 
by skilful maciiinery against the rival pretensions of 
these naturally antagonistic elements, she is, neverthe- 
less, entitled to the gratitude of the masses throughout 
the world. 



* It was shown in the chapters on England how the Democracy in 
alliance with the Aristocracy — and this never occurred belore — raise 
its head in the reign of John, and, later, obtained a legal sphere 
action of its own in the House of Commons. 



THE UNITED STATES. 333 

It was reserved, however, for her progeny in another 
Hemisphere to accomplish this marvel by the ingenious 
combination of the antagonistic forces in question, and 
to realize in the American Constitution of 1787 the 
dreamy speculations of Cicero and Tacitus. No civili- 
zations that had preceded the epoch of these great 
thinkers* had furnished an instance of the Popular 
element being admitted to any participation in Grovern- 
ment, yet their profound reflections brought them to 
the conclusion that the best Grovernment was that 
composed of the three elements. Cicero declared that 
" the best constituted government is that which in 
moderation is composed of the three original elements 
— the Monarchical, the Aristocratic, and the Popular." 
Tacitus endorsed this opinion : — " All nations and 
cities,'' said he, "must be governed either by the People; 
the First ]Men — primoi^es ; or a Single Euler. A Govern- 
ment compounded of these three it is easier to admire 
than to believe possible. If it should ever exist, it will 
be of short duration." The doubt of Tacitus had re- 
ference to the difficulty of combining the three elements 
naturally inimical so as to ensure harmonious action. 
The political mechanicians of 1787 essayed this arduous 
task. Will their work falsify the prediction of Tacitus ; 
or, have they only constructed an Ideal Government 
irreconcilable with the passions of men ? 

In November, 1775, John Adams in a letter to E. 
Henry Lee, sketched a plan for a New Government, 
founded on the English model. He spoke of " a House 

* The first instance, as already stated, of the popular element — that 
is, the majority of the population — being rcvresented in Government 
was by the creation of the House of Commons in England, 1265. Pre- 
viously to this, the minority alone were represented in Government; the 
majority — never. 



334 ^^ ^^^ TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

of Commons, a Council, and a Governor." Here were 
the three elements, but he displayed rare sagacity in 
the following comments : — " It is by balancing each of 
these powers against the other two that the effort in 
human nature towards tyranny can alone be checked 
and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in 
the Constitution." 

The Federal fabric of 1787 not only brought the three 
elements together, but gave to each an orbit of its own, 
with distinct action, and perfect independence. To 
the Monarchical element, styled President, it assigned 
certain functions. The same was done with the Aris- 
tocratic element or Senate, and with the Democratic 
element or House of Representatives. 

Each had special powers, but they were all defined, 
and therefore limited. This is what Cicero meant by 
speaking of " a Grovernment composed in moderation 
of the three elements." It is this Limitation of Power 
which is expressed by the familiar term of " Checks." 

An additional Check was applied by fixing the dura- 
tion of these powers. The Monarchical element was 
limited to four years, the Aristocratic to six years, 
and the Democratic to two years. 

Each was endowed with a separate vitality or 
independence. For example, the Democratic branch 
alone could originate financial measures ; the Aris- 
tocratic united Executive to its Legislative duties, 
since it confirmed or rejected all nominations to office ; 
whilst to the Monarchical element was accorded a 
Veto over all the acts of its rivals, and, also, the power 
of removal from office. 

The Supreme Power was in this manner divided be- 
tween the competing elements, and they were thus 



THE UNITED STATES, 335 

"balanced against each other" in the sense of the 
astute John Adams. 

Their harmonious action was secured by rendering 
their joint concurrence necessary to any complete result. 
No law was valid till all assented, though on this vital 
point an union of two-thirds of the Legislative branches 
— that is, of the Aristocratic and Democratic elements 
— could make a law without the co-operation of the 
Executive or Monarchical element. 

In a country where the Supreme Power is in the 
hands of the Demos — that is, where Universal Suffrage 
exists — there is no way of maintaining stability unless 
constitutional spheres are provided for the Monos and 
the Aristoi in which to exercise their natural authority. 
This has been sufficiently illustrated in the analysis given 
of the Constitution of the United States, where the 
Monos and the Aristoi have their respective orbits as- 
signed and their intrinsic merits fully recognized, but 
wliere both are so sagaciously restricted as not to en- 
danger the safety of the Demos or Mass. 

This is true not only of the Constitution of the 
Nation, but equally so of those of every State and 
town. In these, likewise, the Monos and the Aristoi 
have their legal areas of action ; and so long as they 
are confined within them the security of the Demos 
is guaranteed, and the harmony of society is preserved. 

The simple fact that the same feature is common to 
all the political organizations of the United States is 
a recognition of the universal truth that in all societies 
of men — in all communities the smallest as well as 
the largest — in the village as in the nation — are to be 
found for ever co-existent the dominant^ the sujperior^ 
and the ordinary intellect. 



33^ AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

As civilization advances, and the intelligence of the 
multitude expands, the problem of Grovernment can 
only be solved by political organizations similar to 
those of the United States, where the three elements 
in question are united, but so clieched and balanced 
as to work in harmony. Whilst the balance is pre- 
served the Constitution is imperishable. This is just 
what Tacitus distrusted : this is just what John Adams 
sought. The balance of the Federal Constitution was 
in danger but the other day, when the Aristocratic and 
Democratic elements conspired to overthrow their 
Monarchical rival. One vote only saved Andrew 
Johnson from Deposition.* 

One single remark more. In the United States, ior 
the first time, circumstances favored the tranquil 
combination of these three elements. A new Society 
sprang up there, where neither the Monarchical nor 
Aristocratic elements had taken root, as in the Old 
World. No Eevolutions, no prolonged struggles for 
years were necessary before the claim of the Demo- 
cratic element was recognized. There, the Democracy 
was politically so intelligent that its fitness to share in 
the Grovernment was incontestable.! 

* In 1868, the President of the United States was impeached by the 
House of Kepresentatives, and tried by the Senate. A single vote pre- 
vented his removal. 

t It is curious to note that some of the framers of the Federal Con- 
stitution doubted the capacity of the people to wield political power, 
notwithstanding the people of the American Colonies were more ex- 
perienced and better educated in politics than any people before or since. 
In the debate on this point, Messrs. Eoger Sherman and Gerry, as well 
as some of the Southern Delegates, contested the expediency of " trustinj? 
the people with a direct exercise of power in the general government." 
Messrs. Madison, Mason, and Wilson thought "no republican govern- 
ment could be permanent in which the people were denied a direct 
participation." Surely to have excluded the Democratic element from 
the Constitution would have been a fatal error. 



THE UNITED STATES, 337 

Up to that time in Enrope, no Nation save England 
offered any parallel to this. Everywhere the People 
were not only rudimentally ignorant, but without the 
faintest conception of the Science of Grovernment. To 
admit the Democratic element into Grovernment before 
it is competent to assume such a responsibility is sm^e 
to lead to confusion, and to jeopardize the interests 
of all. What progress towards this consummation has 
been made in the various Nations of Europe since the 
birth of the United States, is one of the topics I 
propose to treat in the work already referred to, " The 
History of my Times." 

Above all, the political organization of England will 
be interesting to examine, and though the three 
original elements are not there balanced as in the 
Constitution of the United States, since the Monarchi- 
cal and Aristocratic elements have by usage become 
subordinate to their rival, yet the Administration is so 
judiciously conducted, and so exactly corresponds to 
the condition of the community, that any premature 
modification of the Constitution might be alike inex- 
pedient and dangerous. 

To return from this somewhat prolonged digression 
to the history of the United States. 

It is perhaps worthy of remark that the framers of 
the National Constitution scarcely appreciated their 
o^vn workmanship, since none were entirely pleased 
with it. In the State Conventions which were called 
to ratify it, opinions as to its merits were greatly 
divided. In Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, 
the opposition was protracted and obstinate. During 
1788, however, it was accepted by nine States, whicb 
made it the Supreme Law of the land. 

15 T 



PRESIDENCY OF WASHINGTON. 

In accordance with the Constitution, Washington 
was chosen President of the United States, in Feb- 
ruary, 1789, and John Adams, Vice-President. In 
April following, the first Congress elected under its 
provisions assembled in New York, where the oath 
of office was taken by the President, and he entered 
upon his duties. Congress immediately created the 
necessary Executive Offices, namely, those of Foreign 
Affairs, Treasury, and War. The President named 
Thomas Jefferson, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Alex- 
ander Hamilton, Secretary for the Treasury, and G-eneral 
"Knox, Secretary for War. 

Two political parties had already sprung up in the 
country out of the differences of opinion respecting 
the Constitution. Those who desired a vigorous ad- 
ministration of the General Grovernment were known 
as "Federalists," whilst those who clung to State 
Sovereignty, and dreaded the preponderance of the 
Central Authority, called themselves ^'Anti-Federalists." 
The latter accused their adversaries of inclining to 
Monarchy, whilst the Federalists charged the Anti- 
Federalists with seeking to weaken, if not to break up 
the Union. 

These were not mere party cries, but had their 
origin in sectional feelings and sectional interests. 
The Northern and Southern States were both peopled 



777^ UNITED STATES. 339 

by British settlers, but of very different character, as 
was seen. The Puritans who occupied the North came 
there to realize their doctrines in religion and politics 
undisturbed. The first inhabitants of Virginia, on the 
other hand, were a band of adventurers of whom 
Captain Smith spoke somewhat disparagingly thus : — 
" Unruly sparks packed off by their friends to escape 
worse destinies at home." Those who followed in 
Maryland, the Carolinas, and Greorgia, were of a better 
order, but all came in hope of aggrandizement. 

To these causes of difference must be added those of 
climate and soil : the North, bleak and unfruitful, im- 
parting industry and perseverance to its inhabitants ; 
and the South, genial and fertile, developing habits 
of indolence and luxury. The early introduction 
of slavery, 1619, into the South rapidly tended to widen 
the dissimilarities already existing. 

The interests of the two sections were likewise 
different, if not opposed. The North was commercial 
and manufacturing, whilst the South was wholly agri- 
cultural. To be sure, the people of both were united 
by the strong ties of a common descent, with similar 
language, laws, and customs. " In spite of their pre- 
judices and jealousies, they had joined in throwing off 
the yoke of the Mother-country, but the great danger 
was apprehended of their separating into rival, perhaps 
hostile communities. This risk was immense during 
the anarchical period that followed the Peace of 1783, 
but the efforts of the patriotic leaders of both sections 
succeeded, as described, in enticing North and South to 
enter into the covenant of the Constitution, which both 
were pledged to maintain for better for worse.* 

* During the debates on the Constitution in the Convention at Phila 

Y 2 



340 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

No sooner, however, was the Constitution set to work, 
than the two political parties mentioned, the Federalists 
and Anti-Federalists, representing the North and South, 
arose. The North insisted on an energetic Federal 
Grovernment, whilst the South, fearing that the North 
from its greater population would control it, proclaimed 
their adhesion to State Sovereignty, and a strict limita- 
tion of the Federal power. 

These parties found champions in two able and 
distinguished men, Alexander Hamilton of New York, 
and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Washington dreading 
the effects of their political antagonism, induced them 
both to enter his Cabinet, where by his influence and 
impartiality he endeavored to secure their joint 
support for the various measures of his policy. 

Throughout his Presidency the greatest solicitude of 
Washington was to check political excitement, and 
restrain the passions of the people. His object was to 
give time for the new institutions to settle down, and 
to acquire a hold on the respect and affections of the 
country that had of late years undergone so many 
vicissitudes, and where disorder had become almost 
chronic. To establish the Constitution, born of yester- 
day, and distrusted by a formidable party ; to reconcile 
the State Grovernments to the preponderance of the 
Federal Grovernment, and prevent any clash of jurisdic- 
tion ; in a word, to set the wheels of the new political 
machine in motion, and regulate their orderly revolu- 
tion — this was the mighty task that Washington 
undertook when he accepted the Presidency, and it 

delphia, C. Pinckney of South Carolina declared on one occasion : " I had 
prejudices against the Eastern States before I came here, but cheerfully 
acknowledge I have found their representatives as candid and liberal 
as any men whatever." 



THE UNITED STATES. 34 1 

may be doubted if any man less conscientious, less 
experienced, less firm, and less respected, could have 
succeeded in his patriotic object. 

The first Law of the new Congress was moved by Mr. 
Madison of Virginia, to the effect that Duties be levied 
on " goods, wares, and merchandise imported," with a 
view to obtain revenue, and promote manufactures. An 
Act was also passed to favor American tonnage. It 
was regarded as patriotic and generous in a Eepre- 
sentative of the South to recommend laws favorable to 
manufactures and navigation — both Northern interests. 

In the second Session of Congress, January, 1790, a 
violent struggle ensued between the Federalists and 
Anti-Federalists, the North and the South, on the 
subject of the Debts contracted by the late Confederation 
as well as by the States during the Eevolution. Some 
eleven millions of dollars were owing to France and 
Holland, and a much larger sum at home. The 
Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton, proposed in an 
able Eeport that the United States should assume both 
these Debts, and provide for their liquidation. Both 
parties agreed on the discharge of the foreign Debt, but 
to pay the large domestic obligations of the Confedera- 
tion and the States would involve a National Debt. This 
the South resisted, as it would tend to consolidate the 
General Grovernment. After a heated contest the South 
withdrew all opposition, and the necessary Acts were 
passed. 

The North on this occasion disarmed the South by 
agreeing to establish the permanent seat of the Govern- 
ment on the Potomac. * 

* The Potomac River is the conventional dividing-line between North 
and South. 



342 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

In 1791, Congress created a Bank of the United 
States, with a view to facilitate the Huancial operations 
of the Grovernment and the country. The South opposed 
it from the same apprehension of putting another lever 
in the hands of the Federal Government. 

As the close of Washington's first term of office 
approached, he had the satisfaction to see the country 
he had found in such confusion gradually returning to 
order and confidence. The financial system he had 
established not only relieved the States from a crushing 
mass of debt, but afforded such facilities to trade and 
industry as to promote general prosperity. Under his 
guidance the Constitution was daily becoming more 
stable, and its popularity, even at the South, was 
spreading so rapidly that the Opposition dropped the 
name of " Anti-Federalists," and assumed that of 
'' Republicans." Washington contemplated with patri- 
otic joy the buoyant prospects of the Nation. On 
returning from one of his excursions to various parts of 
the Union, he wrote : — " The country appears to me in 
a very improving state, and industry and frugality are 
becoming more common than hitherto. Tranquillity 
reigns among the people, with that disposition towards 
the general government which is likely to preserve it. 
They begin to feel the good effects of equal laws and 
equal protection. The farmer finds a ready market 
for his produce, and the merchant calculates with more 
certainty on his payments. Each day's experience of 
the Government of the United States seems to confirm 
its establishment, and to render it more popular. A 
ready acquiescence in the laws made under it shows in 
a strong light the confidence the people have in their 
representatives, and in the upright views of those who 
administer the Government." 



THE UNITED STATES. 343 

Almost at the same period, Jefferson felt constrained 
to bear similar testimony to the thriving condition 
of the country. Though a member of Washington's 
Cabinet, he was the acknowledged leader of the party 
which, in the first place, took exception to the Constitu- 
tion as likely to confer too much authority on the 
Central Government ; which, next, opposed the funding 
of the Debts of the Confederation and the States ; and 
which, finally, resisted the creation of the Bank of the 
United States that rendered at the time to every class the 
most efficient service. Yet he was forced to admit the 
incontestable success of Washington's sagacious policy. 
He thus wrote : — " In general, our affairs are proceeding 
in a train of unexampled prosperity. This arises from 
the real improvement in our government ; from the 
unbounded confidence reposed in it by the people, their 
zeal to support it, and their conviction that a solid 
union is the best rock of their safety ; from the 
favorable seasons also, which for some years have 
increased the productions of agriculture, and from the 
growth of industry, economy, and domestic manufactures. 
So that I believe I may say with truth, that there is not 
a nation under the sun enjoying more present prosperity, 
nor with more in prospect." 

Under these favorable circumstances it is no wonder 
that Washington regarding his mission as complete, 
should express his earnest desire to retire from the 
harassing cares of office, and seek needed repose in the 
calm of " Mount Vernon." A protest resounded 
throughout the land. An instinctive dread seemed to 
seize on the people. The loss of his sound judgment, 
his firm character, and disinterested patriotism, filled 
them with apprehension. His Cabinet, Congress, and 
the Nation united to solicit his re-election. Washington 



344 ^"^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

hesitated. lie knew that the Constitution, though in 
a less precarious condition than when he began to 
administer it, had hardly yet settled down on a firm 
foundation. His anxiety, too, was awakened by the 
increasing virulence of the two great parties which, 
under the leadership of Hamilton and Jefferson, grew 
daily more bitter in their strife. Worse than all, he 
was alarmed at the effect in the United States of the 
recent French Eevolution, which had deeply aroused the 
sympathies of tlie Nation for their old Ally. He felt 
that he alone of all men could avert under Providence 
the dangers that loomed in the horizon. He consented, 
therefore, to a re-election in 1792. 

His apprehensions were speedily realized. No sooner 
had a Coalition been formed in Europe against the 
French Eevolution, with England at its head, than an 
universal shout was raised to succor France and declare 
war on England. Washington's attachment to France 
was sincere, but he considered the intervention of the 
United States in her wars as Quixotic, since little service 
could be rendered to France, whilst immense losses 
would be incurred. With his usual foresight, Washing- 
ton seemed to anticipate the failure of the French 
Revolution. He wrote to Henry Lee, 1793, in these 
words : — " The affairs of France would seem to me in 
the highest paroxysm of disorder, not so much from the 
presence of foreign enemies, for in the cause of liberty 
this ought to be fuel to the fire of the patriot soldier, 
but because those in whose hands the government is 
entrusted are ready to tear each other to pieces, and 
will more than probably prove the worst foes the country 
has." 

His determination was soon taken as to the policy 



THE UNITED STATES 345 

that prudence suggested, and he consulted his Cabinet 
on the expediency of issuing a Proclamation of Neu- 
trality. His Cabinet were then unanimous, and in 
April, 1793, the President in an able document declared 
the neutrality of the United States in the war then 
prevailing between France and an European Coalition. 
The following is an extract : — '' My policy has been, 
and will continue to be while I have the honor to re- 
main in the Administration, to maintain friendly terms 
with, but to be independent of all the nations of the 
earth ; to share in the broils of none, to fulfil our own 
engagements. * * * Nothing short of self-respect, 
and that justice which is essential to a national charac- 
ter, ought to involve us in war ; for sure I am, if this 
country is preserved in tranquillity twenty years longer, 
it may bid defiance in a just cause to any Power what- 
ever, such in that time will be its wealth, power, and 
resources." This, and many other declarations, showed 
that Washington was resolved to adhere inflexibly 
to neutrality, and for a time his influence calmed the 
country. 

The " Eepublican " or Democratic party of that day, 
however, determined with the sanction of their champion, 
Jefferson, to raise the banner of France, and appeal to 
the passions of the people. 

At the same moment arrived in the United States, 
the new Minister of the French Republic, " Citizen 
Grenet," and he set to work with reckless zeal to em- 
broil the country in a war with Grreat Britain. In 
defiance of the Proclamation of Neutrality he began 
enlisting recruits ; fitting out privateers ; establishing 
prize courts in various ports of the Union ; organizing 
expeditions against the Spanish rule in Florida ; issuing 

15* 



346 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

inflammatory addresses to the people. His language to 
the Grovernment was frequently not only disrespectful, 
but insolent. He accused it of " a cowardly abandon- 
ment of its friends," and of acting against " the inten- 
tion of the people of America, whose fraternal voice 
resounded from every quarter around him." 

Unfortunately his obnoxious conduct received cordial 
'support from the " Republican " party which had 
espoused the cause of France, and daily assailed the 
policy of neutrality. Two of its organs in Philadelphia, 
then the seat of Government, and where Grenet resided, 
violently attacked the Government, and ventm-ed to 
decry Washington himself. FreneavCs Gazette * thus 
encouraged Genet : — " The Minister of France I hope 
will act with firmness and spirit. The people are his 
friends, or the friends of France, and he will have 
nothing to apprehend, for, as yet, the people are 
sovereign in the United States. * *' * If one of 
the leading features of our Government is pusillanimity 
when the British Lion shows his teeth, let France and 
her minister act as becomes the dignity and justice of 
her cause." Backers Advertiser used the following 
language : — " It is no longer possible to doubt that the 
intention of the Executive of the United States is to 
look upon the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between 
France and America as a nullity, and that they are 
prepared to join the league of Kings against France." 

To stimulate popular enthusiasm still further 
Associations were formed called "Democratic Societies," 
the object of which was declared to be to protect 
American liberty against an " European Confederacy " 

* Freneau was a Frenchman, and employed in the State Department 
by the Secretary, Mr. Jefferson, as a translator. 



THE UNITED STATES. 34/ 

and " tlie pride of wealth and arrogance of power " at 
home.* 

Doubtless Washington was shocked at the frenzy of 
party spirit which sought to plunge the country anew 
into war, and he must secretly have deplored the infatu- 
ation of a portion of the people. Whatever were his 
reflections or emotions, his composure was unruffled 
by all this clamor. He lost no time, however, in 
vindicating the dignity of the Government and the 
supremacy of the laws. He called on the Governors of 
Pennsylvania and South Carolina to put a peremptory 
stop to the illegal conduct of the French Envoy,t and 
also demanded of his Government to order his prompt 
recall. A new Minister succeeded him in February, 
1794. 

The difficulties of the situation were aggravated by 
the conduct of the British Government, which seized 
all American vessels laden with bread-stuffs for France 
as contraband, and frequently impressed American sea- 
men. The exasperation caused by these acts in the 
United States was zealously heightened by the Eepub- 
lican party, and the chances of war increased so rapidly 
that the President sent John Jay on a mission to 
England, May, 1794, to put an end if possible to the 
grievances complained of. Mr. Jay succeeded in making 
a new Treaty with the British Cabinet conceding most 
of the demands of the American Government. The 
Senate ratified the Treaty, with certain modifications, 
and the President finally signed it. This removed all 

* These events are described in detail in Young's " American States- 
man." 

t It was stated that some fifty British vessels were captured— some 
within the jurisdiction of the United States — by privateers fitted out 
under the authority of Genet. 



348 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

danger of hostilities, and the anger of the Eepublican 
party knew no bounds. 

It can hardly be credited that the party of Mr. 
Jetferson* seriously contemplated a war with Eng- 
land. Their real object was, doubtless, to obtain 
possession of the Grovernment by inducing a majority 
of the people to adopt their party cries. Already they 
had secured the control of the House of Eepresenta- 
tives, and elected their Speaker, December, 1793, by a 
majority of 10 over the candidate of the Federalist party. 
They felt sure, therefore, that by keeping alive the 
popular sympathies for France, they would raise Jeffer- 
son to the Presidency at the next election. The Treaty 
with England, as well as the horrors of the French 
Revolution, had both tended to allay political excite- 
ment, and the Republican Politicians dreading defeat 
gave way to the most intemperate conduct. They 
called public meetings all over the country to denounce 
the Treaty ; the negotiator, Mr. Jay, was burned in 
effigy in different places ; a copy of the Treaty was 
burned before the houses of the British Minister and 
Consul in Philadelphia. The Senators who ratified it 
were denounced. Nor did they stop here, but indulged 
in flagrant abuse of Washington ; disparaged him as 
Soldier and Statesman ; demanded his Impeachment for 
ordering the negotiation of the Treaty ; and finally 
published forged letters purporting to have been 
written by him in 1776, favorable to Great Britain 
and opposed to the cause of Independence. 

The unscrupulous attacks of the Republican leaders 

* Mr. Jefferson's opposition to the peace policy of "Washington con- 
strained him to retire from his Cabinet, December, 1793. He was suc- 
ceeded by Edmund Eandolph of Virginia. 



THE UNITED STATES. 349 

and their j^arty journals on Washington greatly shocked 
the country, and caused a reaction in favor of the 
Federalists. Party feeling ran so high that an attempt 
was made in the House of Eepresentatives, March, 
1796, to invalidate the Treaty with Grreat Britain. 
Edward Livingston of New York, a leader of the 
Eepublican party, moved that the President be called 
on to lay the Instructions to Mr. Jay, with the Corre- 
spondence, before the House of Eepresentatives. After 
a prolonged debate the motion was adopted by 62 to 
37. This demand was a direct violation of the Con- 
stitution which had confided the treaty-making power 
to the President and the Senate. Washington declined 
to comply with the call of the House, as it would be 
conceding a right the Constitution had not conferred 
on it, and establishing a dangerous precedent. He 
declared that "the power of making Treaties is ex- 
clusively vested in the President, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, provided two-thirds 
of the Senate concur, and that every Treaty so made 
and promulgated is thenceforward the law of the land. 
.... In this construction of the Constitution, every 
House, of Eepresentatives has heretofore acquiesced, 
and until the present time not a doubt or suspicion 
has appeared to my knowledge that this construction 
was not the true one." 

The determination of Washington to maintain the 
Constitution in its integrity awed the Opposition, and 
they abandoned their untenable position. 

The Eevolutionary Government of France was more 
incensed at the "Jay Treaty," which had settled all 
difficulties with Grreat Britain, than even the Jefferson 
party, for they hoped to see the United States at war 



350 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

with their enemy. In a spirit of hostility they issued 
decrees damaging to American commerce, and in vio- 
lation of Treaties. Finally, they refused to receive 
Mr. Pinckney, the American Minister, whom they 
threatened to arrest on his arrival in Taris. 

The conscientious and patriotic efforts of Washing- 
ton to promote the welfare of the country, though 
cordially sustained by the mass of the people, did not 
protect him from the persistent diatribes of the Oppo- 
sition organs. 

On one occasion Mr. Jefferson was suspected of being 
connected with these insidious attacks, and he wrote to 
Washington to exonerate himself. The President thus 
replied : — " As you have mentioned the subject yourself, 
it would not be frank, candid, or friendly, to conceal that 
your conduct has been represented as derogating from 
that opinion I conceived you entertained of me ; that 
to your particular friends and connections you have 
described, and they have denounced me, as a person 
under a dangerous influence ; and that if I would listen 
more to some other opinions, all would be well. 
My answer has invariably been, that I had never dis- 
covered anything in the conduct of Mr. Jefferson 
to raise suspicions in my mind of his sincerity ; that 
if he would retrace my conduct whilst he was in 
the Administration, abundant proof would occur to 
him that truth and upright decisions were the sole 
objects of my pursuit ; that there were many instances 
within his own knowledge of my having decided 
against, as in favor of the person alluded to (Hamilton) ; 
and, moreover, that I was no believer in the infallibility 
of the politics or measures of any man living. In short, 
that I was no party-man myself, and that the first wish 



THE UNITED S TA TES. 3 5 I 

of my heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile th^m. 
To this I may add, that until the last year or two I had 
no conception that parties would, or even could, go 
the lengths I have been witness to ; nor did I believe 
until lately, that it was within the bounds of probability 
— hardly within those of possibility — that while I was 
using my utmost exertions to establish a national 
character of our own, independent, as far as our obliga- 
tions and justice would permit, of every nation of the 
earth, and wished, by steering a steady course, to pre- 
serve this country from the horrors of a desolating war, 
I should be accused of being the enemy of one nation, 
and subject to the influence of another, and to prove it, 
that every act of my administration would be tortured, 
and the grossest and most insidious misrepresentations 
would be made, by giving one side only of a subject, 
and that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms, 
as would scarcely be applied to a Nero, to a notorious 
defaulter, or, even, to a common pick-pocket. But 
enough of this. I have already gone further in the 
expression of my feelings than I intended." * 

Jt was not the outrages of faction alone that 
Washington had to endure dm-ing his second term of 

* Notwithstanding Washington's confidence in the sincerity of Jeffer- 
son, it would seem he was a determined opponent of the President's 
policy. A letter written by Jefferson to P. Mazzei, a foreigner, in 
April, 1796, was published the following year in the United States. 
This curious epistle is given in the "American Statesman," p. 160, 
whose author makes the following comment : — " Such a letter from one 
with whom he (Washington) had long sustained the most intimate and 
friendly relations, private and official, accusing him of antagonism to 
republican principles, and of co operating with a monarchical parly to 
change the government — characterizing fcis administration as ' the calm 
of despotism,' and representing, its measures as ' contrivances invented 
for the purposes of corruption' — gave Washington great pain, and 
marred, if it did not terminate, the friendship which had so long sub- 
sisted between these two eminent and esteemed individuals." 



352 AN HIS TO RICA L RE TROSPE C T. 

office, but trials of far greater magnitude. An Insurrec- 
tion broke out in Western Pennsylvania against the tax 
on whisky in the summer of 1794. Finding his 
Proclamation set at defiance, Washington ordered out 
15,000 of the Militia of the adjoining States, and of 
Eastern Pennsylvania, and was preparing to take the 
command in person when the Insurgents broke up ^nd 
dispersed. A sanguinary war with the Indians on the 
North-Western frontier, which began at the end of 
1791, was carried on for two years. One of the armies 
sent a<>ainst them under General St. Clair was defeated 

o 

by disobeying Washington's instructions. They were 
tinally overpowered by Greneral Wayne. 

In September, 1796, Washington issued his Farewell 
Address to the United States ; modestly but firmly 
declining a re-election for a third term. This memorable 
document conveying in solemn language his parting 
injunctions to the Nation is always regarded by his 
country with veneration. 

In December he met Congress for the last time, when 
he had the satisfaction to announce that all difficulties 
with Foreign Nations had been adjusted, and that the 
prosperity of the country was steadily augmenting. 
These were the closing words of his Address : — " The 
situation in which I now stand for the last time, in the 
midst of the representatives of the people of the 
United States, naturally recalls the period when the 
administration of the present form of Government 
commenced, and I cannot omit the occasion to con- 
gratulate you, and my country, on the success of the 
experiment, or to repeat my fervent supplications to 
the Supreme Euler of the Universe, that his Provi- 
dential care may still be extended to the United States ; 



THE UNITED STATES. 353 

that the virtue and happiness of the people may he 
preserved ; and that the Grovernment which they have 
instituted for the protection of their liberties may he 
perpetuated." Both Houses of Congress on this occasion 
voted complimentary Addresses. That of the House of 
Eepresentatives stated amongst other clauses : — " We 
entertain a grateful conviction that your wise, firm, and 
patriotic administration has been signally conducive to 
the success of the present form of government. " The 
Address of the Senate was voted unanimously ; but that 
of the House was opposed by twelve of its Members ; 
among whom were Edward Livingston, and Andrew 
Jackson, both prominent leaders of the Eepublican or 
Jefferson party. 

An astonishing instance of the frenzy ofpartymaybe 
found in the following paragraph from the Aurora^ pub- 
lished in Philadelphia, and which appeared a few days 
after the Addresses voted by Congress: — "If ever a nation 
was debauched by a man, the American nation has been 
debauched by Washington. If ever a nation has been 
deceived by a man, the American nation has been 
deceived by Washington. Let his conduct then be an 
example to future ages. Let it serve as a warning that 
no man may be an idol. Let the history of the 
Federal government instruct mankind that the mask of 
patriotism may be worn to conceal the foulest designs 
against the liberties of the people." This senseless 
ebullition against a man who in his own time 
was regarded as a model of uprightness in public 
and private life, is only worth citing as a proof 
that party spirit defies alike the bounds of reason, 
truth and decency. To the honor oi his country 
let it be said, that such sentiments as the above 

z 



354 ^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

were simply the effusions of some distempered Politi- 
cians. The mass of his countrymen entertained for 
Washington the respect and veneration his conduct and 
services were calculated to inspire. 

On March 3rd, 1797, the Administration of the first 
President ended. 

During this period all disputes with Foreign Nations 
except France were terminated ; Credit was restored ; 
the payment of the Public Debt provided for ; Com- 
merce, Manufactures, and Agriculture prospered ; the 
Exports and Imports nearly trebled ; and the Public 
Eevenues augmented beyond all expectation. Far 
more assuring than this, however, was the stability 
which Washington's Administration had given to the 
young Constitution. " My predominant motive has 
been," said Washington in his Farewell Address, " to 
endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and 
mature its yet recent institutions." 

In commenting on the career of Washington, Gruizot 
thus writes: — " The trials of public life were painful 
to him ; he preferred the independence and repose of 
a private position to the exercise ot power. But he ac- 
cepted without hesitation the task his country imposed 
on him, and in fulfilling it he made neither with the 
nation nor himself any compromises that might have 
lightened the burden. Born for government, although 
it afforded him little satisfaction, he spoke to the 
American people what he believed true, and maintained 
what he believed wise, with a firmness as inflexible as 
it was simple, and often at a sacrifice of popularity, the 
more meritorious as it was not compensated by the mere 
love of domination. The servant of an infant Republic 
when the Democratic spirit was in the ascendant, he 



THE UNITED STATES. 355 

obtained its confidence, and assured its triumph by de- 
fending its interests against its passions, and by per- 
sisting in a policy at once modest and severe, reserved 
and independent — a rare success, alike honorable to 
Washington and his country." " Of all great men," 
says this eloquent writer, " Washington was the most 
virtuous and the most fortunate. Grod has in this 
world no higher favors to bestow." 

Washington was beyond question the foremost of the 
remarkable men that figured in the American Kevo- 
lution. Quorum jpars raagna fuit. 



■ S 



PEESIDENCY OF JOHN ADAMS. 

When Washington positively declined a re-election, the 
two rival parties selected their candidates for the Pre- 
sidency. The Federalists united on John Adams, one 
of the ablest Statesmen of the Revolution, and the 
Republicans upon their leader, Thomas Jefferson, who 
had retired from the Cabinet of Washington, December, 
1793, condemning his policy of neutrality. 

In the Presidential election of 1796, the Republican 
Politicians made strong appeals to the popular prejudices 
against Grreat Britain. The French Minister, Adet, 
took an active part in the canvass. He published in 
the Aurora, the organ of the Republican party, a 
letter ostensibly written to the Secretary of State, 
denouncing the " bad faith and ingratitude " of Wash- 
ington's Administration to France. Adet also published 
in the Aurora an order to all Frenchmen in the United 
States to wear during the election the tri-colored 
cockade, which was generally assumed as a badge by 
the Republican party. All these intrigues, however, 
failed, for John Adams, the champion of the neutrality 
doctrine, was elected, and the peace policy of Washing- 
ton was sustained by the country. 

The Administration of the second President began 
on March 4th, 1797. He retained the Cabinet of 
Washington — Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State ; 
Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury ; and James 
McHenry, Secretary of War. 



THE UNITED STATES. 357 

The relations of the country with France were at 
that time very critical. The French Grovernment in- 
censed at tlie United States for persisting in their 
neutral policy resorted to the most hostile measures 
against her commerce. They ordered all American 
vessels carrying any productions of Grreat Britain to be 
captured. This was in violation of neutral rights, rs 
well as of the Treaty between France and the United 
States. Under these circumstances President Adams 
called an extra Session of Congress, May, 1797. There 
was a majority in both Houses in favor of the Admi- 
nistration. Active preparations were made for the 
probable contingency of war. 

The President dreading this alternative sent three 
Commissioners to France to negotiate a pacific adjust- 
ment of all difficulties. Talleyrand, the Minister of 
the French Grovernment, demanded large sums of money 
as the price of peace. The American Grovernment 
refused these terms, and broke off negotiations. The 
Congress of 1798 passed an Act suspending all commer- 
cial intercourse with France. It created at the same 
time the Navy Departm^ent, and B. Stoddart of Mary- 
land was nominated as Secretary. 

As the chances of war were imminent, Washington 
was solicited to take the command of the armies of the 
United States. He consented with great reluctance. 
" With sorrow I should quit," he wrote, " the shades of 
my peaceful abode to encounter anew the turmoils of 
war, to which, possibly, my strength and powers might 
be found incompetent." He was nominated to the 
chief command, with the rank of Lieutenant-General, 
even before his answer was received. 

Fortunately in November, 1799, the French Grovern- 
ment fell into the hands of General Bonaparte, and he 



358 AN HISTORICAL RE TROSPECT, 

directed at once that all disputes with the United 
States should be settled, and consequently a new 
Treaty was made in September, 1800, which restored 
the old relations of amity between the two countries. 

During the Session which closed in July, 1798, Con- 
gress passed two Acts which obtained great notoriety. 
These were the famous " Alien " and " Sedition " 
laws. 

The Act concerning aliens empowered the President 
to order any foreigner he considered " dangerous to 
the peace and safety of the United States, or suspected 
of being engaged in any treasonable machinations 
against the Grovernment thereof, to depart out of the 
country." The motive of this Act was the notorious 
fact that not only Foreign Ministers, more especially 
those of France, but a herd of political writers both 
French and English were actively engaged in tra- 
ducing the Grovernment and policy of the United 
States, and seeking to sow discord among its citizens. 
This abuse Congress deemed it necessary to check. 

This enactment was followed up by another called 
the ^' Sedition Law," which was levelled at any one, 
foreign or native, who should either endeavor to stir 
up riots and insurrections ; or who should " write, 
print, utter, and publish any false, scandalous, or 
malicious wi'iting," against the Government, Congress, 
or President of the United States. 

These laws were meant to restrain the truculence of 
party writers, the most unscrupulous of whom were 
foreigners : * laws which had the sanction of Washing- 

* Among the most conspicuous of these literary adventurers were 
Freneau, of the National Gazette, Philadelphia,— a Frenchman ; J. 
Duane, of the Aurora, Philadelphia,— an Irishman; T. Callender, of the 



THE UNITED STATES. 359 

ton, Patrick Henry, and many eminent patriots. The 
"Mien Act" was never enforced, as its passage in- 
duced the most obnoxious foreigners to quit the 
country at once. Several prosecutions took place 
under the "Sedition Law." Fine and imprisonment 
were imposed by both these laws. 

Whatever the necessity for these enactments, the 
shrewd leaders of the Eepublican party thought them 
admirably adapted for political agitation, and the 
signal was given to begin a relentless war against 
them. It was declared by them that the " Alien " 
and " Sedition " laws were " palpable and alarming 
infractions of the Constitution,'' and their party organs 
all over the country taking up the cry resounded 
with the loudest denunciations of the Federalist party 
which had passed them. 

With a view to give more effect to this political 
onslaught on their rivals, Mr. Madison, at the request 
of Mr. Jefferson, introduced into the Legislature of 
Virginia, December, 1798, a series oi Resolutions 
solemnly declaring " the Alien and Sedition laws to 
be in violation of the Constitution." These Resolutions 
were ordered to be transmitted to the Grovernors of the 
other States to be laid before their respective Legis- 
latures. 

Not content with this broadside against the peccant 
Federalists, Mr. Jefferson, the head and front of the 



Examiner, Richmond, — a Scotahman. This latter was an instrument of 
Jefferson, who relused, when he became President, to make him post- 
master at Richmond. In anger, Callender published numerous letters 
of Jefferson, proving he had been his political tool. William Cobbett, 
of the Porcupine Gazette, Philadelphia, was an Englishman. Bting 
condemned to ^5,000 damages in a libel suit, he left the country in 
1800. 



360 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

Eepublican party, drew up with his own hand another 
set of Eesolutions which were laid by his allies before 
tne Legislature of Kentucky, and were passed before 
those of Virginia, November, 1798. These Kentucky 
Eesolutions of INTr. Jefferson turned out another Pan- 
dora's box, for they contained the germ of that political 
heresy since so sadly known as the doctrine of Nullifi- 
cation, 

These Eesolutions declared : — " That the Union was 
a compact between the States, as States, instead of the 
'people of the several States." 

This was in contradiction to the preamble of the 
Constitution, which begins, "We, the people of the 
United States." 

They further declared : — " That, as in other cases of 
compact between parties having no common judge, 
each party has an equal right to judge for itself^ as 
well of the infractions, as of the mode and measure of 
redress." 

This denied the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, 
whose prerogative it is to pronounce on the constitu- 
tionality of any Federal law. 

In conformity to these views of State-rights, the 
Eesolutions affirmed " the Alien and Sedition Acts to 
be, not law, hut altogether void and of no forced It 
was further asserted : — " That when powers are assumed 
which have not been delegated, a Nullification of the 
Act is the right remedy, and that every State has a 
natural right to nullify of its own authority all 
assumptions of power by others within its limits." 

As Mr. Jefferson was the author of these Kentucky 
Eesolutions, he must be regarded as the father of the 
doctrine of Nullification, which from that time became 



THE UNITED STATES. 36 1 

the favourite dogma of many Politicians of the South- 
ern States. It may be that Mr. Jefferson entertained 
an honest dread of the undue supremacy of the Federal 
Government over the States, but the failure of the 
first Union known as the " Confederation " proved that 
if the States retained their complete independence, 
anarchy and civil war were inevitable. To obviate this, 
as we saw, a new Union was organized which gave the 
Federal Grovernment a preponderance over the States, 
and furnished it with the necessary coercive j-Oiuer 
to enforce its supremacy. The powers delegated to 
the Federal Government by the framers of the Consti- 
tution of 1789 show that it was their intention to limit 
the Sovereignty of the States, and to make the Federal 
authority Supreme. In case of dispute between 
the Federal and State Governments as to the constitu- 
tionality of any Federal law, a High Court was created 
to pronounce its solemn fiat thereon. Yet in the face 
of these recent and undeniable facts Mr. Jefferson in 
1798 was guilty of the flat heresy recorded in the above 
Eesolutions. He was too clear-headed not to know he 
was setting up a false idol, but his zeal as a Politician 
overcame his reason and his patriotism. 

The Virginia and Kentucky Eesolutions were duly 
communicated to the other States, but met with no re- 
sponse. The Legislatures of Delaware, New York, and 
New England disclaimed them. 

The real object of the Eepublican leaders, however, 
was achieved. They inflamed the popular mind 
ao'ainst the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the cliances of 
Mr. Jefferson in the next election were increased. 

Another event still more serious rendered the re- 
election of Mr. Adams doubtful. In his negotiations 

16 



362 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

with France, he acted in opposition to the views of the 
majority of his Cabinet, and of several influential 
Federalists, notably Greneral Hamilton and Gouverneur 
Morris. This led to a schism in his party. In May, 
1800, the President demanded the resignation of the 
Secretaries of State and War. John Marshall of Vir- 
ginia, and S. Dexter of Massachusetts, were called to 
succeed them. This only made the breach more irre- 
parable. As the Presidential election of 1800 ap- 
proached, the Federalist leaders opposed to Mr. Adams 
plotted to obtain the majority of the electoral votes 
for C. C. Pinckney, the Federalist candidate for the 
Vice-Presidency. The manoeuvre failed. TheEepub- 
lican candidates, Jefferson and Burr, received each 73 
votes ; the Federalist candidates, Adams and Pinckney, 
^b and 64 votes. As there was a tie between Jefferson 
and Burr, the election of President devolved by the 
Constitution on the House of Eepresentatives. 

It was during the Presidency of Mr. Adams, in the 
summer of 1800, that the seat of Grovernment was 
transferred from Philadelphia to the city of Washing- 
ton. 



PRESIDENCY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

It must have been a source of mortification to Mr. 
Jefferson that he, the author of the " Declaration of 
Independence," and perhaps the ablest Statesman of the 
Eevolution, should find himself on a par in the esti- 
mation of the country with such a man as Aaron Burr, in 
every way his inferior. Doubtless his political course 
during the Administrations of Washington and Adams 
had lowered him in the respect of his fellow-citizens. 

In the balloting for the President in the House of Re- 
presentatives, the opposition to Jefferson was prolonged. 
As there were then sixteen States in the Union, nine were 
necessary to a choice,^ each State giving but one vote, 
The Federalist party from its dislike of Jefferson was 
mostly disposed to vote for Bun*, whom it could have 
elected, but many eminent Federalists considered Burr 
unworthy of the position. General Hamilton exerted 
all his influence with his party against him. He 
denounced Burr in a private letter which soon became 
public in the following terms : — " There is no doubt 
that upon every prudent and virtuous calculation Jeffer- 
son is to be preferred. He is by far not so dangerous a 
man, and he has pretensions to character. As to Burr 
he has nothing in his favor. His private character 
is not defended by his most partial friends. His public 
principles have no other spring or aim than his own 
aggrandizement. If he can, he will certainly distm'b 



364 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

our institutions to secure himself permanent power, and 
with it wealth. * * * To accomplish his ends, he 
must lean upon unprincipled men, and will continue 
to adhere to the myrmidons who have hitherto sur- 
rounded him. To these he will no doubt add able 
rogues of the Federal party ; but he will employ the 
rogues of all parties to overrule the good men of all 
parties, and to promote projects which wise men of 
every description will disapprove."* 

The struggle between the partisans of Jefferson and 
Burr in the House of Eepresentatives continued for a 
week, but at last some members of the Federalist party 
agreed to withdraw their opposition if Mr. Jefferson 
would consent when elected, first, to support the public 
credit ; second, to maintain the navy ; third, not 
to remove subordinate public ofiScers for political 
motives. These terms were accepted, and on the thirty- 
sixth ballot Thomas Jefferson was chosen President. 

In his Inaugural Address, March, 1801, he dropped 
the role of a sectional Politician that he had hitherto 
played, and assumed a tone more becoming his exalted 
position. He used conciliatory language towards the 
Federalist or Northern party, which he had previously 
assailed with bitterness. " We have called," said his 
Inaugural, " by different names brethren of the same 
principle. We are all Eepublicans — we are all Fede- 
ralists. If there be any among us who would wish to 
dissolve this Union, or to change its Eepublican form, 
let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety 

* General Hamilton's strenuous efforts tended to prevent Burr's elec- 
tion. Treasuring up this wronp:, he abided his opportunity, and in 1804-, 
near the close of his term as Vice-President of the United States, he 
demanded reparation of General Hamilton in a duel, in which the latter 
Was killed. 



^ THE UNITED STATES. 365 

witli wliicli error of opinion may be tolerated when 
reason is left free to combat it." 

The new President made Madison of Virginia, Secre- 
tary of State ; Dearborn of Massachusetts, Secretary of 
War. He retained at the head of the Treasury and 
Navy the Secretaries appointed by his predecessor.* 

The Eepublicanor Southern party was in a majority 
in both Houses of Congress, and the influence of Pre- 
sident Jefferson over its legislation was therefore un- 
bounded. 

Most of the office-holders had been appointed by 
President Washington, and represented the Federalist 
party, now in minority. It was feared they would be 
generally removed for members of the dominant 
side On this point the President showed more regard 
for the interests of the country than of his party. Yet 
he did not think it fair that the " monopoly of office was 
to be continued in the hands of the minority," but his 
desire was to remove only the least worthy. He 
recorded his opinion that the only questions concerning 
a candidate for office should be, " Is he honest, is he 
capable, is he faithful to the Constitution ?" The whole 
of the removals during his Administration numbered 
less than forty. 

The great sensation of 1801 was the rumor that Spain 
had secretly ceded her territory of Louisiana to France. 
This, of course, invalidated the treaties between 
Spain and the United States, securing to the latter 
the navigation of the Mississippi river. The western 



^'' The National Intelligencer, one of the most reputable lournnls ever 
published in the United States, was establit-hed at tins period in 
Washington, and became the official organ of the Government, and 
of the Eepublican or Southern party. 



366 ^A' Historical retrospect. 

country was up iu arms at this news, and insisted on the 
Government taking effectual means in their behalf. 
The French Grovernment for over a year denied the re- 
ported cession, but finally admitted that it had occurred 
in October, 1801. Such was the agitation on this 
subject that President Jefferson resolved by every pos- 
sible means to nullify the effects of this unexpected 
event. The Minister to France, Eobert E. Livingston, 
was instructed to employ all the efforts of diplomacy 
to effect a satisfactory solution of the difficulty. The 
chances of a breach between the two countries were sud- 
denly averted by an offer of the First Consul — Bonaparte 
— to sell the territory in question to the United States. 
This led to a new perplexity. What authority had the 
Government under the Constitution to undertake such 
a purchase ? The advantages of the acquisition, how- 
ever, were so immense that our Minister to France, 
supported by Mr. Monroe who had been sent out for 
this purpose, ventured to enter on the negotiation, and 
without instructions they assumed the responsibility of 
striking a bargain by which the United States were to 
become the owners of this immense domain for some 
fifteen millions of dollars. They signed a Treaty to that 
effect and sent it to the President. It is not to be pre- 
sumed that the Ministers to France would have taken a 
step so far transcending their powers without some secret 
instructions from their Government. This was proved 
by the action of the President who endorsed the 
unauthorized Treaty, and called an extra Session of 
Congress in October, 1803, to ratify it, which was 
promptly done. By means of this diplomatic manoeuvre 
Louisiana became the property of the United States. 
At the close of his first term of office Jefferson was 



THE UNITED STATES. 36/ 

re-elected in 1804, and entered on his second Admini- 
stration the ensuing March. His popularity had greatly 
increased, for his re-election was almost unanimous. 

The second term of Mr. Jefferson was seriously dis- 
turbed by the war raging between England and France. 
In their eagerness to injure each other the infuriated 
combatants set the interests of all neutral Nations at 
defiance. They interpreted the Law of Nations as they 
pleased, and made new regulations to suit their purpose. 
Under these circumstances the commerce of the States 
suffered great damage, and, worse still, Grreat Britain 
to recruit her navy frequently impressed seamen in 
the American service on the ground that they were 
British subjects, which, indeed, was often the case. 
The Secretary of State reported in March, 1808, that 
the number of seamen seized during the European war 
amounted to 2,273. 

Though deeply incensed at the outrages of both 
England and France, the United States did not deem it 
expedient to resort to war ; but the Government re- 
solved on retaliatory measures. Congress, consequently, 
passed an Act, 1806, prohibiting the importation of 
manufactures from Grreat Britain and her Colonies. 

In December of this year, a Treaty was negotiated 
with England by Monroe and Pinkney, the American 
Ministers in London, which guaranteed the commercial 
intercourse of both Nations ; but the question of ^m- 
pi^essment was reserved for future negotiation. The 
British Government, however, gave assurances which 
satisfied the American Ministers that the utmost care 
should be taken not to molest any citizens of the United 
States, and that prompt reparation should be made for 
any injury. 



368 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

This important Treaty, as it was regarded by the 
commercial community as well as by the negotiators 
— the confidential friends of the President — was re- 
jected by Mr. Jefferson without submitting it to the 
Senate. His motive was never fully disclosed. The 
Federalist party attributed its rejection to his well- 
known partiality for France. The British Cabinet 
regarded it as a proof of his desire to embroil the rela- 
tions of the two countries. There is no doubt the 
President's refusal to submit this Treaty to the Senate 
was one of the causes which finally led to war. 

Comformably to Art. I., Sec. 9th, of the Constitution, 
Congress, in the Session of 1806-7, passed an Act, at 
the suggestion of the President, abolishing the Slave 
Trade after January 1st, 1808. 

The spoliations committed on the commerce of 
neutral Nations in the beginning of the conflict between 
Great Britain and France were greatly aggravated, in 
1806, by new measures of hostility. In May of that 
year England, by Orders in Council, declared the west 
coast of Europe under blockade " from the River Elbe 
to Brest inclusive." In November of the same year 
Napoleon retaliated by his Berlin Decree, which declared 
the British Islands in a state of blockade, and " all 
commerce and correspondence with them prohibited." 

In disregard of the Treaties between France and the 
United States, the American Minister at Paris was in- 
formed that the Decree was ap|)licable to American 
commerce. 

In November, 1807, England, by new Orders in 
Council, declared that " all ports and places belonging 
to France and her Allies were under blockade, and all 
trade in the produce or manufactures of these countries 



THE UNITED STATES. 369 

and their colonies prohibited." In December of the 
same year Napoleon retorted by his Milan Decree, of 
a still more sweeping character than that of Berlin. 

Amongst other clauses was one especially levelled at 
the United States, to the effect " that every ship of 
whatever nation which had submitted to search by an 
English ship, or had made a voyage to England, or paid 
any tax to that Grovernment, was thereby denationalized 
and lawful prize." In consequence of these Orders and 
Decrees, violating both Treaties and the Law of Nations, 
a vast number of American vessels with their cargoes 
were captured by the cruisers of the two belligerents. 
Exasperated by these wholesale depredations, sensible 
that remonstrance or menace was alike useless, and 
knowing that the country was unable to cope with both 
England and France, Congress passed in December, 
1807, on the recommendation of the President, the 
famous " Embargo Law," by which all vessels within 
the jurisdiction of the United States bound to a foreign 
port were prohibited from sailing. Thus American 
commerce, with the exception of the coasting trade, 
was utterly suppressed. 

It was supposed that the effect of the Embargo, by 
stopping the exportation of cotton and grain, would 
coerce the belligerents to show more respect to American 
commerce, but such was not the case. Greneral 
Armstrong, United States Minister in France, wrote in 
August, 1808 : — " Here the Embargo is not felt, whilst 
in England, amid the exciting scenes of the day, it is 
forgotten." 

Very different, however, was the result in the United 
States, where the stoppage of all foreign trade led to 
wide-spread disaster. In New England, especially, 

16* A A 



370 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

wl ere capital was largely invested in commercial pur- 
suits, ruin was universal. So loud was the outcry all 
over the country against this baneful Law that it was 
repealed, March 1st, 1809, and a new Act was substituted 
by Congress called the " Non-Intercourse Law," by 
which foreign trade was restored, except with Eogland 
and France. 

Political passions were running high when Jefferson 
retired from office. The Federalist or Northern party 
accused him of the destruction of American trade and 
commerce by wantonly rejecting the Treaty with 
England through his undoubted sympathies with France. 
" Our agriculture," they declared, "is discouraged; the 
fisheries abandoned ; navigation forbidden ; the revenue 
extinguished; the navy sold and dismantled;* the nation 
weakened by internal animosities and divisions." On 
the other hand, the Southern, or Democratic party as it 
now was generally called, pointed with exultation to 
the acquisition of Louisiana, with its million of square 
miles of territory, and the free navigation of the 
Mississippi river. 

* This had reference to a whim of Mr. Jefferson, -who said that gun- 
boats or cutters were all that was required for the coast defences of the 
United States, and that a navy was an unnecessary expense. 



PRESIDENCY OF JAMES MADISON. 

Tn spite of the "Embargo Law " and its consequences, 
the Democratic party retained its hold on the country, 
and raised James Madison to the Presidency in 1808. 
He received 122 electoral votes, whilst his Federalist 
opponent obtained but 47* 

The new Administration found itself immediately 
engaged in angry discussions with England and France 
for their constant aggressions on American commerce. 
Napoleon resented the " Non-Intercourse Law " of the 
United States, by issuing his Eambouillet Decree in 
March, 1810, which, in the words of Mr. Monroe, " made 
a sweep of all American property within the reach of 
the Frencli power." 

In May, 1810, Congress passed an Act proposing to 
revoke the " Non-Intercourse Law," if England or 
France would within the year agree to revoke their 
edicts against American commerce. Napoleon, who 
sought every opportunity to involve his adversary 
England in disputes with the United States, seized the 
new occasion that offered. He told the United States 
Minister at Paris that " his Berlin and Milan Decrees 
were revoked," and the President by proclamation re- 
voked the " Non-Intercourse Law," as regarded France, 
without requiring any proof beyond the Emperor's mere 
declaration. England refused to recall her Orders in 
Council until satisfied that France was not deluding the 

A A 2 



3/2 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

United States, wliich turned out afterwards to be the 
case. 

Napoleon's artifice succeeded, for the Administration 
believing that France was disposed to respect neutral 
rights demanded with energy that England should 
do the same. The correspondence between the two 
Governments became more animated than ever, and the 
prospect of a final rupture steadily increased. A war 
faction sprang up in the United States led on by the 
youthful Politicans of the Southern party, of whom 
Calhoun, Clay, and Lowndes were the most ardent. 

In the summer of 1811, the Indian tribes north of 
the Ohio river, under the lead of Tecumseh, a Cliief of 
great reputation, made war on the United States. It 
was asserted that British emissaries had stimulated them 
to this act. They were completely routed by General 
W. H. Harrison. 

In March, 1812, the President communicated to 
Congress certain documents which went to show the 
existence of a British plot to dismember the Union by 
seducing the Eastern States to retire from the Con- 
federacy. It ajDpeared that a John Henry had been 
employed by the Governor-General of Canada to visit 
secretly the United States to ascertain " the state of 
public opinion as to the probability of a war with Great 
Britain ; the strength of the two leading parties, and, 
which was most likely to prevail." Henry was re- 
called " without having had any conversation with any 
person in the country on the subject of his mission.'* 
Dissatisfied with the recognition of his services by the 
British Government, he ottered to sell his information 
to the United States Government, and was paid 
,$50,000 by the Secretary of State, Mr. 'Monroe. The 



THE UNITED STATES. 373 

British Cabinet denied all knowledge of the transaction 
ill oj3en Parliament. 

Hostility to England now ran so high that the 
Democratic or Southern party refused to renominate 
Mr. Madison for the Presidency, unless he pledged 
himself " to go for war." He considered a war in- 
expedient, as did his Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
Gallatin, but he yielded, at length, to political pressure, 
and was made a candidate for re-election. 

Various Acts were passed by Congress as "preliminary 
war measures ; " amongst others a new Embargo Law, 
and an Act forbidding the exportation of specie. In June, 
1812, the President sent a Message to Congress recom- 
mending war with Great Britain. The reasons assigned 
were, first, the impress'tnent of American seamen ; 
next, the British doctrines and system of blockade ; and 
finally, the depredations committed by English subjects 
on the commerce of the United States. A vehement 
debate ensued, which was carried on with closed doors, 
against the protest of the minority. Both Houses of 
Congress voted for war — 19 to 13 in the Senate, and 79 
to 49 in the House. 

The anti-war party was composed of the Northern 
Members, or Federalists. They drew up an emphatic 
remonstrance against the war as unnecessary and inex- 
pedient. They declared that, as to the point of vrnpress- 
ment, all the Governments of Europe maintained the 
right to the services of their citizens in time of war. 
With regard to England, they showed by the Correspond- 
ence of tlie United States Minister in London, that she 
had renounced her prescriptive right on the " high seas," 
still claiming it on the " narrow seas." The Minister, 
Mr. King, however, stated " that with more time 



374 ^^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

tlian was left him for the negotiation, this restriction 
could be overcome." 

After showing that all the causes of war alleged were 
insufficient, they wound up their appeal to their 
countrymen in this strain : — " If honor demands a 
war with England, what opiate lulls that honor to 
sleep over the wrongs done us by France ? On land, 
robberies, seizures, and imprisonments by French 
authorities ; at sea, pillage, sinkings, and burnings 
under French orders. These are notorious. Is any 
alleviation to be found in the correspondence and 
humiliations of the present United States Minister at 
the French Court? In his communication to our 
Government, now before the public, where is the cause 
for selecting France as the friend, and England as the 
enemy of our country ? " * 

The Act declaring war was signed by the President, 
June 18th, 1812. The British Government ignorant 
of this voluntarily revoked the Orders in Council on 
June 23rd.t 

James Madison was elected again to the Presidency 
in 1812, by the Southern or Democratic party, receiving 
128 electoral votes against 89 for the rival candidate — 
all of which were given by States North of the Potomac, 
save South Carolina. 

The United States Government had made very in- 
adequate preparations for the war it had undertaken. 
The Treasury was nearly empty in consequence' of the 
various Embargo Acts. The army numbered less than 

* This document showed that the exports from the United States for 
1 SI 1 amounted to 45 mil. ions of dollars, of which 1 milliou only went to 
France. 

t Had the Atlantic Cable existed in those days, the transmission of 
this fa(.'t would have averted the war. 



THE UNI TED S TA TES. 375 

10,000 men, the half of them mere recruits. The navy 
consisted of 8 frigates, 2 sloops, and 5 brigs. Congress 
voted a new army of 25,000 regulars, and 50,000 vo- 
lunteers. General Dearborn was appointed Commander- 
in-Chief. 

Hostilities began by an invasion of Canada from 
Detroit, under General Hull. His forces were wholly 
insufficient, and he was compelled to surrender, in 
August, to the British General, Brock. A second in- 
vasion of Canada on the Niagara frontier was equally 
unfortunate. On the ocean, however, the navy, small as 
it was. acquired great renown. In August, the Constitu- 
tion^ Capt. Hull, captured the Guerriere; in October, the 
Wasp, Capt. Jones, captured the Frolic ; in October, 
also, the United States, Capt. Decatur, captured the 
Alacedonia ; and in December, the Constitution, Capt. 
Bainbridge now commanding, captured the Java, 
Besides these successes in regular warfare, the privateers 
which covered the sea captured during the year some 
300 British merchant vessels. 

Thus ended the campaign of 1812. 

For the following year, three armies were raised to 
operate on the Canadian frontier. Numerous engage- 
ments occurred with alternate successes and reverses. 
The campaign closed on land with no decided result. 
The navy was again more fortunate than the army. 
In September, on Lake Erie, a British fleet ,of six 
vessels was taken by Commodore Perry. On the ocean, 
in February, the Hornet, Capt. Lawrence, captured the 
Peacock ; and in September, the Enteiyrise, Lieut. 
Burrows, captured the Boxer. In June, however, Capt, 
Lawrence of the Chesapeake was forced to surrender 
to Capt. Broke of the English frigate Shannon, who 
was knighted for this feat. 



^y6 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPE C T. 

The succeeding campaign of 1814 was conducted 
Avith more spirit on both sides. In July, the British 
were defeated at Chippewa by General Brown ; and 
again, in the same month, at Lundy's Lane by 
Generals Brown and Scott. In August, a British 
fleet arrived in the Chesapeake with an army of 
5,000 men, imder General Eoss, who landed and 
marched on Washington. The Federal city had been 
left without defence, and was easily taken. The 
President and his Cabinet had abandoned it, and 
the British General burned the Capitol and other 
public buildings. In September, the same army made 
an ^ 'tack on Baltimore, but was routed, and General 
1. killed. In September, on Lake Champlain, a 
British fleet was vanquished by Commodore Mac- 
Donough ; and on the same day, an English army of 
14,000 men, under General Prevost, besieging Platts- 
burg, was repulsed by General Macomb. On the ocean 
this year the British lost six vessels of war, and the 
Americans two, the frigates Essex and President. 

In January, 1815, a British army under General 
Pakenham, 12,000 strong, landed to make an attack on 
New Orleans, which was defended by General Jackson 
with 5,000 men, chiefly militia. The attack was repulsed, 
January 8th, with a loss to theBritish of 2,000 killed and 
wounded.* 

In 1813, the Emperor of Eussia had offered to 
mediate between the United States and Great Britain, 
which the first accepted, but the latter declined. In 
1814, negotiations for peace at the instance of Great 

^ This action was fought before the news of Peace, signed December 
2-lth, 1814:, reached the United States — another instance where an 
Atlantic Cable would have changed the history of men and things. 



THE UNITED STATES. 2>77 

Britain were renewed, and Commissioners were appointed 
by both Governments, who met at Ghent, where a Treaty 
of Peace was signed in December, 1814. The Treaty 
provided for the restoration of all territory taken during 
the war, and the settlement of the northern boundary of 
the United States. 

It is a striking fact that nothing was said of the 
impressment of American seamen, one of the main 
causes of the war. The President had instructed the 
United States Commissioners, " if peace could not be 
had on other terms, to waive the question of impress- 
ment, and leave it for future negotiation." " The 
inquiry naturally presents itself," says the author of 
the " American Statesman," " that as impressment was 
the only grievance to be redressed by war, after the 
revocation of the British Orders in Council, and as 
this point was waived by our Government in the nego- 
tiation, ichat was gained by the war ? " He also 
remarks that the elder Statesmen and leading men of 
the Administration were opposed to the war party, but 
yielded to the impulsive young Politicians, Calhoun, 
Clay, and others, who, it was suspected, were seeking 
simply to turn "the prejudice against Great Britain to 
their own political advantage." " Whether," continues 
this author, " the nation has ever obtained an equivalent 
for the 30,000 lives and the hundred millions of money 
expended, for the loss of property and several years of 
prosperous commerce, for the depravation of public 
morals, and other evils consequent on war, is a question 
which, at least, admits of a reasonable doubt."* 

* If the insinuation is just that the " impulsive young politicians," 
Calhoun and Clay, urged on the war from ambitious motives, they 
were doomed to disappointment, as they never reached the Presidential 



378 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

In connection with the hostilities of 1812 should be 
mentioned the discontent of the Eastern States, whose 
commercial interests were much damaged by the 
Embargo Acts, and wholly prostrated by the war. With a 
view to mitigate these evils, and if possible to terminate 
the war, a Convention of Delegates from several of the 
New England States met at Hartford, in December, 
1814. It is this body that afterwards became so 
notorious as the Hartford Convention. They sat 
with closed doors, but from the published Eeport 
of their proceedings it would appear they proposed to 
amend the Federal Constitution rather than to effect a 
dissolution of the Union, as was alleged. One of the 
Amendments passed was "to prohibit Congress from 
laying an Embargo for more than sixty days ; " and 
another, " requiring the concurrence of two-thirds of 
both Houses to declare war." The Southern Politicians 
adroitly seized on this incident to raise the cry of 
Treason against their Northern rivals. The truth of the 
accusation was so generally suspected, if not believed, 
that the Federalist party, of whose members the Hart- 
ford Convention was composed, lost its hold on the 
country and rapidly broke up. 

It is worthy of notice that the Protective System was 
introduced into the United States by the Southern States. 
The reason was obvious. Great Britain blunderingly 
imposed a Duty on cotton, which made the cotton- 
growing States naturally anxious to manufacture that 
important staple at home. Consequently President 
Madison, the candidate of the Southern States, in his 
Message to Congress, December, 1815, recommended a 

chair, but were only instrumental in raising to it Jackson and Harrison, 
two Generals who acquired distinction in the war. 



THE UNI TED S TA TES. 379 

Tariff on imports, not merely with a view to revenue, 
but to afford encouragement to certain branches of 
native manufactures. The leading Eepresentatives of 
the South, Calhoun, Lowndes, Clay, earnestly advocated 
this Protective policy. On the other hand the New 
England States, with Webster as their chief exponent, 
energetically opposed it, for their interests being 
commercial, they were desirous to give extension to the 
carrying trade, which a Protective Tariff with its restric- 
tions on foreign goods would hamper. In consequence 
of the suggestions of the President, the Southern 
or Democratic party passed a Law imposing a scale of 
Duties on imports ranging from twenty to thirty-five 
per cent. 

At the close of the war, the financial condition of the 
country was in utter disorder. All the Banks save 
those of New England, had suspended specie payments, 
and the want of an uniform solvent currency was pres- 
singly felt. There seemed no hope of rescue from the 
general confusion but in a National Bank. In Congress 
and out of it, the majority believed that such an 
institution could alone restore the currency, and enable 
the Grovernment to ride over its financial difficulties. 

The first Bank of the United States was chartered 
by Congress in 1791, and approved by President 
Washington. It was incorporated for twenty years and 
rendered eminent services to the trade and commerce 
of the country. The charter expired in 1811. 

It is noteworthy that this first Bank of the United 
States was ardently opposed by the South in Congress, 
and as ardently supported by the North. 

In 1816, when another Grovernment Bank became a 
national necessity, it is singular to find the South taking 



3 80 A N HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

a strong stand for its immediate incorporation, wliilst 
the North was as decided in opposition. The Bill to 
create the Bank was reported by J. C. Calhoun, the 
leader of the Southern or Democratic party, and Daniel 
Webster, the head of the Nortliern party, argued ably 
against it. It passed the Lower House by 80 to 71 
and the Senate by 22 to 12. 

The Bank was chartered for twenty years with a 
capital of thirty-five millions of dollars, of which one- 
fifth wa5 to be paid in specie, and one-fifth to be sub- 
scribed for by tile Grovernment. It was to be entitled 
to the deposit of the public funds, which it was required 
to disburse without charge. A bonus of a million and 
a-half dollars was demanded for its charter. The Govern- 
ment was to appoint five of the twenty-five Directors. 

The South and the North voted almost in a body 
against each other on this Bill. 

On both these questions of a Protective Tariff, and of 
a Bank of the United States, the South and the North 
completely changed sides in the lapse of a few years, 
which simply proves that these great sections took at 
different periods a different view of their interests. 
The consequence was that the Politicians of the South 
assailed the Politicians of the North, in 1791, for sus- 
taining a Grovernment Bank, and, in 1816. the former 
again attacked the latter for not sustaining it. So, in 
1816, the Politicians of the North fell iipon the Poli- 
ticians of the South for advocating a Protective System, 
and, in 1 828, the former again denounced the latter for 
not advocating it. In short, the Politicians of the 
North and South were compelled to exchange argu- 
ments with each other, and to take positions on these 
two questions directly opposite to those first assumed. 



PRESIDENCY OF JAMES MONROE. 

James Monroe of Virginia, the candidate of tlie Southern 
party, was elected President in 1816, by 183 electoral 
votes to 43 given to the opposing candidate. 

He was inaugurated March 4th, 1817, and selected his 
Cabinet from the members of the Democratic party. 
J. Q. Adams was made Secretary of State; J. C. 
Calhoun, Secretary of War ; W. H. Crawford, Secretary 
of the Treasury ; and B. W. Crowinshield, Secretary of 
the Navy. 

Mr. Monroe had the good fortune to begin his Ad- 
ministration without any party opposition. The resist- 
ance made to the war by the Federalist party of the 
Nor til compromised its standing with the country, and 
the uproar raised by its rival, the Democratic party of 
the South, about the Hartford Convention gave the 
quietus to all its hopes of future success at the polls. 
The conciliatory tone of the President to his late 
political opponents, the Federalists, afforded them the 
coveted opportunity, and they promptly tendered their 
support to his Administration. 

For the greater part of President Monroe's first 
term the Politicians of the two sections. North and 
South, were united in joint support of such measures 
as came up. The political sea was unruffled. It 
was the first complete calm the country had witnessed. 
As far as the eye could reach no cloud of disagree- 



382 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

ment could be descried. " It is gratifying to witness," 
wrote the President, " the increased harmony of 
opinion which pervades the Union. Discord does not 
belong to our system." For some three years this 
" era of good feeling " continued. 

During this interval there was little of national 
interest occurred save an Indian war — the Seminole — 
in Florida. It led in the end to the cession of all this 
territory to the United States by a Treaty with Spain 
in February, 1819, wherein the United States Grovern- 
ment bound itself to pay five millions of dollars in lieu of 
all claims for spoliations committed by Spain against 
citizens of the United States. 

The political lull which had so happily prevailed was 
suddenly dispelled by an incident which occurred in the 
House of Eepresentatives in the beginning of 1 8 1 9. The 
territory of Missouri applied for admission as a State of 
the Union, when a New York Member, James Tallmadge, 
got up and moved an Amendment prohibiting the 
further introduction of slavery within the said territory. 
Thereupon the Southern Members passionately ex- 
claimed that this was a violation of the Constitution. 
The Northern Members responded as warmly that the 
assertion was unfounded. Cobb of G eorgia said, " a fire 
had been kindled which only seas of blood could ex- 
tinguish." Tallmadge of New York replied, " if 
blood was necessary to extinguish any fire he had 
kindled, he was ready to contribute his own." 

The North and South were again at loggerheads, 
but this time the split was serious indeed. Hitherto, 
they had quarrelled on points of policy on which 
sometimes the North was divided against itself, and 
sometimes the samx3 occurred at the South. But this 



THE UNITED S TA TES. 383 

time the whole North — Federalists and Democrats — 
were united against the South, which was equally miani- 
mous. On the part of the North it was a question of 
sentiment, but on the part of the South it was one of 
material interest. 

Strange to say the North and the South had changed 
sides on this subject as they had done on nearly all 
others. 

At a very early date the New England Colonies, 
following the example of the Mother-country,* were 
actively engaged in the African Slave Trade. New 
England ships made the voyage to England with tobacco 
and rice ; there took in British manufactures for the 
Guinea Coast, which exchanging for blacks, they re- 
turned to the Southern Colonies, sold them, and reload- 
ing with tobacco and rice for Europe, as before, com- 
pleted the round voyage. 

The South finding themselves inundated with a black 
population, began to remonstrate against its further 
increase. In 1777, Mr. Jefferson introduced a Bill into 
the Virginia Legislature which became a Law " to pre- 
vent the importation of slaves." In 1784, Mr. Jefferson 

*In 1.561, a Sir John Hawkins sailed for the Guinea Coast withEng- 
lish merchandise, which he exchanged for a cargo of negroes. These he 
carried to Hispaniola, sold for sugar and ginger, and then returned to 
England. Similar expeditions followed. In 1689, the British Govern- 
ment entered into a convention with Spain by which she agreed to pro- 
vide her West India Colonies with African slaves. In 1713, the " South 
Sea Company " entered into a similar agreement, and furnished the 
Spanish Colonies with 4,800 slaves per annum for thirty years. In 
1760, General O'Hara, Governor of Senegambia, reported that in the 
" previous fifty years no less than 70,000 blacks had been deported 
per annum from that country alone." In the development of this com- 
merce there were three great interests that especially prospered : the 
manufacturers, the shippers, and the merchants. The venture of Sir 
John Hawkins was the commencement of the trade in African Ijlacks, 
which was carried on by England with immense profits for the period of 
246 years. 



384 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

proposed in the Congress of the Confederation, a Bill to 
prohibit slavery in all the territory held by the United 
States, and in all that might be afterwards acquired. 
This did not succeed at the time, but in 1787 a Bill was 
passed prohibiting slavery in the territory north-west of 
the Ohio. In the Convention which framed the Federal 
Constitution, the South insisted on the abolition of the 
Slave Trade in the United States, which the North con- 
sented to at the expiration of nineteen years, 1808, on 
condition of receiving as compensation for this " thriving 
trade," the monojDoly of the coasting trade against all 
foreign tonnage. 

But when 1 808 arrived, a complete change of opinion 
had occurred in the North and South relative to slavery. 
The invention of the cotton-gin* which increased the 
production of that staple, and the acquisition of 
Louisiana with its almost tropical soil, had greatly en- 
hanced the demand for slave labor. Consequently, instead 
of a grievance, slavery had become a profit to the South, 
which vindicated it strongly, whilst the North on the 
other hand having washed its hands of all connection 
with the blacks, began to take a more philanthropic 
view of the matter. In this reversed position affairs 
stood for a few years, the North merely exacting that a 
Free State should enter the Union for every Slave State. 
Accordingly, Vermont was followed by Kentucky; 
Tennessee by Ohio ; Louisiana by Indiana ; Mississippi 
by Illinois ; Alabama by Maine. 

When, however, it was proposed in Congress, as related, 
to admit Missouri as a Slave State in 1819, the North 

* The cotton-gin, invented by Eli Whitney of Massachusetts, was an 
ingenious machine for separating the seed from the cotton with eitrtnie 
celerity. 



THE UNITED STATES. 385 

in the person of a New York Member objected. Then 
occurred the scene alluded to in which the South 
fulminated threats, and the North shouted its defiance. 

After the adjournment of Congress in 1819, a tre- 
mendous agitation on the slavery question broke out 
in the North. Public meetings were called in all the 
towns and villages ; the Legislatures of the middle States 
drew up memorials to Congress ; the New England States 
joined in the general chorus : all vociferating that it was 
" the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in 
the Territories." 

When Congress met, its halls rang with angry echoes, 
and the excited Politicians gave free vent to their 
sectional feelings. At last, reason in a measure recovered 
its sway, and a compromise was agreed on. It was 
settled that Missouri should be admitted to the Union 
as a Slave State, but for ever after slavery was to be pro- 
hibited north of 36° 30' north latitude. This was the 
famous " Missouri Compromise," which for a time put 
an end to the slavery agitation, but as events proved it 
was only " scotched not killed." 

Without discussing the arguments of the various 
orators, Northern and Southern, as to the constitution- 
ality of slavery, or the right of Congress to interfere 
with it — much less stopping to consider slavery in 
the abstract — it is worth while to mention the taunt 
of the South as to the motives which had stirred up this 
alarming perturbation. The Southern Politicians in- 
sinuated that their rivals of the North had been beaten 
at the game of politics ; that they had lost their hold on 
the National Grovernment since the Administration of 
John Adams ; and that in the hope of recovering it they 
were seeking to inflame the imagination of the people 

n BB 



386 AN HIS TORICAL RE TROSPECT. 

on the subject of slavery reckless of the consequences, 
amonsfst which mio^ht be civil war and a dissolution of 
the Union. However this may have been, the words of 
the Georgia Member were indeed prophetic, that "a 
fire had been kindled which only seas of blood could 
extinguish." 

The only other striking event which distinguished 
the Administration of President Monroe was the recogni- 
tion in 1822 of the South American Colonies of Spain 
as independent Eepublics. In his Message to Congress 
preceding this event, he protested with moderation 
against the intervention of any European power in the 
affairs of the American Continent. He declared that 
*' as a principle the American continents, by the free and 
independent position which they have assumed and 
maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as 
subjects for future colonization by any European power." 
This declaration has since been christened as the 
*' Monroe Doctrine," and is often quoted. 

Monroe was the last to occupy the Presidential chair 
of the Statesmen who figured in the Eevolutionary 
struggle. 



PEESIDENCY OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

In the Presidential election for 1824, the North pre- 
sented no candidate. The Southern or Democratic 
party failed to unite on any candidate, and in conse- 
quence the electoral colleges gave their votes to various 
prominent individuals of that party. Greneral Jackson 
received 99 votes ; J. Q. Adams, 84 ; W. H. Crawford, 
41 ; and Henry Clay, 37. As none had a majority, 
the election for President vested in the House of Ee- 
presentatives, where, in February, 1825, J. Q. Adams 
received the vote of 1 3 States ; G-eneral Jackson, of 7 ; 
and W. H. Crawford, of 4. Mr. Adams was therefore, by 
a majority of the States, elected President. 

Being convinced of the impossibility of his election, 
Mr. Clay had withdrawn his name from the canvass, and 
desired the States who were ready to support him to 
record their votes for Mr. Adams. 

On the accession to office of President Adams, he 
tendered the Secretaryship of State to Mr. Clay. Upon 
this a loud outcry was raised by the partisans of the 
defeated candidates of a bargain having been made 
between Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. It was baptized as 
the " Coalition," and led to a vast amount of personal 
altercation. The only thing certain was that Mr. Clay 
retired from the contest when he saw no chance of 
success, and as he preferred Mr. Adams' nomination to 
that of General Jackson, he naturally used his influence 

B B 2 



388 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

to secure it. Mr. Adams, on the other hand, selected 
him for his chief Secretary, as the best qualified for the 
post, but no doubt felt grateful to Mr. Clay for giving 
his claims the preference over those of his rival. 
General Jackson. The partisans of the latter, however, 
made an immense clamor over the alleged " Coalition," 
and manoeuvred skilfully to ensure Greneral Jackson's 
elevation to the Presidency at the next election. 

There was little in the foreign or domestic policy of 
President Adams which requires special notice. " His 
administration was remarkable for order, method, and 
economy, though party spirit springing from quarrels 
generated by the election was higher and more ran- 
corous than it had been for many years." * 

The most interesting event of this Administration 
was the passing of a new Act by Congress, May, 1828, 
further increasing the Duties on the importation of 
wool and woollen goods, with a view to encourage 
American manufactures. In the last year of President 
Monroe's Administration, 1824, the Tariff had been 
raised in conformity to suggestions in his last Message, 
but it was complained by the manufacturers th^ the 
Duties in question had been evaded, and in the last 
year of the Administration of President Adams, 1828, 
it was proposed in their interest to remodel them. An 
acrimonious debate ensued, and the greatest diversity 
of opinion prevailed. The Southern States vehemently 
opposed any augmentation of the Tariff as detrimental 
to the agricultural interest, whilst some of the Northern 
States advocated it zealously for the reason that it 
was beneficial to that interest. The South, also, was 
disposed to deny the constitutionality of a Tariff to 

* '* New American Cyclopaedia." 



THE UNITED STATES. 389 

protect home manufactures, but it was shown that in 
the first Congress which met after the adoption of the 
Constitution, and where so many of its framers were 
present, no one questioned the power of Congress to 
adopt a Protective policy under the clause which autho- 
rized it to " levy and collect taxes, duties, imports, and 
excises — to regulate commerce with foreign nations." 

A conclusive proof of the change of opinion on the 
subject of a Protective Tariff at the North and South 
may be found in the fact that, in 1824, Mr, Webster 
of Massachusetts was the aViCst opponent of such a 
measure, used all his talents and influence against 
it, and brought a formidable array of facts and figures 
to show its inexpediency; whereas, in 1828, he was dis- 
covered on the opposite side of the same question, and 
displayed just as much ability in vindicating the effi- 
ciency of higher imposts to develope manufacturing 
prosperity. Within this short interval the State he 
represented in Congress had begun to invest her capital 
in manufactures, and, of course, he was obliged to 
change his ground and express different views. 

The Tariff Bill of 1828 passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives by 105 to 94, and the Senate by 26 to 21, 
which shows that the division of opinion was nearly equal. 
The eccentric John Randolph of Virginia declared in 
the House that "the Bill, if it had its true name, 
should be called a Bill to rob and plunder nearly one 
half the Union for the benefit of the residue." Mr. 
Drayton of South Carolina moved to amend the title 
of the Bill, and insert, " to increase the Duties upon 
certain imports for the purpose of increasing the profits 
of certain manufacturers." 

I shall here close the retrospect of the political 



390 ^A' HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

history of the United States. In 1828, Greneral 
Jackson was elected President, but as I was a spec- 
tator of most of the events connected with his Admini- 
stration, I shall treat of them in the volume already 
referred to, — " The History of my Times." 



SUMMARY. 



SUMMAR V. 

The following summary will comprise an impartial 
estimate of the historical facts recorded rather than a 
mere recapitulation. It may be that the general reader 
will obtain in this way a clearer perception of the purport 
of this volume, which is chiefly designed to show that, 
from the Christian era, a single principle, which then 
first appeared, has by its gradual development shaped 
the history of the world and the destiny of mankind. 



First Civilizatioiu 

Asia was the seat of the first civilization, and its 
salient features were the concentration of all the power, 
wealth, and knowledge in the hands of the Upper 
Classes, whilst ignorance, poverty, and slavery w'ere the 
lot of the Lower Class, which constituted three-fourths 
of the population. This state of society has been 
invariably upheld by the Laws and Religions of Asia, 
and endures to this day essentially the same as it was 
some three thousand years before the Christian era. 

17* 



3 94 ^ ^^ ^^^ TO RICA L RE TROSPE C T. 

The solution of this phenomenon is to be found in 
physical causes. 



Second Civilization, 

Africa was the seat of the second civilization, where 
similar physical causes produced a state of society m 
all respects analagous to that in Asia. 



A Mystery, 

History affords no clue to the civilization found 
existing in America in the fifteenth century. The 
features, political and social, were identical with those 
of Asia and Africa. As the climate of Mexico and 
Peru resembles that of the Eastern countries mentioned, 
it is another proof that physical causes alone explain 
the peculiar condition of all these countries. 



Third Civilization. 

Europe was the seat of the third civilization, which, 
intellectually, far surpassed those preceding it ; but, 
in other respects, the organization of society was the 
same. Power, wealth, and knowledge were still mono- 
polized by the Upper Classes, whilst ignorance, poverty, 
and slavery, were still the heritage of the Lower Class. 
The intellectual superiority of the third civilization is 
attributed to physical conditions different from those 
of Asia, Africa, and America. 



SC'MA/AIiY. 395 

Fourth Civilization. 

The fourth civilization followed the advent of the 
Messiah, and was founded on the doctrines of the New 
Eeligion. The most conspicuous among these was 
the dogma that all men were equal in the sight of 
God. This principle of Equality was till then unknown 
in the world, and its religious and moral effect on the 
masses was so great that it led, first, to the extinction 
of the Pagan Eeligion, and, next, to the fall of the 
Roman Empire — both based on the religious and moral 
inequality of mankind. 

Dark Ages. 

The successful invasion of Eoman Europe by the 
barbarous tribes of Germany was due to the New 
Eeligion, which indisposed the masses to sustain a 
religious and political fabric founded on their perma- 
nent enslavement. The chaotic condition of the world 
known as the " Dark Ages " was marked by the con- 
flict between Christianity and brute force, in which 
the former triumphed. The rise of Charlemagne in the 
eighth century may be regarded as the period when the 
new ideas predominated. Material order, moral cul- 
ture, and religious instruction, in harmony with the 
New Eevelation, then began to prevail. 

The New Polity. 

The confusion and lawlessness which character- 
ized the Dark Ages received their first check under 
the Empire of Charlemagne. It was only after his 



396 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, 

death wlien Europe, consolidated for a time by his 
genius, broke up into various Nationalities that the 
New Polity began to reveal itself. It was at this 
period, the dawn of the Middle Ages, that the authority 
of Christianity was strong enough over the greater part 
of Europe to influence Government. This may, there- 
fore, be called the Inauguration of the New Polity, 
for from the fall of the Eoman Empire in the fifth 
century to the rise of Charlemagne in the eighth 
nothing deserving the name of Grovernment existed 
in Europe. The political organizations which then 
successively arose were all Christian, but the doctrines 
of the New Religion were interpreted to accord with 
tyrannical instincts, and their beneficent effects on 
the condition of the masses were destined for long ages 
to be ignored. Yet it is none the less memorable that 
with the close of the Dark Ages the old civilizations 
lost their hold on Europe. It was then the fourth 
civilization — the New Polity — obtained its ascen- 
dency; it was then that moral power derived from the 
teachings of Christianity began its career ; and it was 
then that mere physical force in the government of 
men was put on its trial. The doctrine of the in- 
equality of men, which was the corner-stone of the 
ancient civilizations, was undermined when the New 
Polities were set up — when Grovernments under the 
sway of the Christian religion began their ministration. 
It can hardly be regarded as less than marvellous that 
in a period of scarcely four centuries, the fourth or 
Christian civilization had made such progress that 
Royal Power, then regarded as of divine origin, should 
be compelled to acknowdedge that the masses had 



SUMMARY. 397 

rights. When King John of England, in 1215, bound 
himself not to " deny or delay to any man right or 
justice," it proved that truly a New Polity had ap- 
peared in the world, and that the Ancient Polities 
which taught the hereditary inequality of men, and the 
permanent subjection of the many to the moral, legal, 
and political authority of the few, were doomed to 
decay. 

France,, 

The first permanent organization of society which 
sprang up in Europe under the fourth civilization is 
known as the Feudal System. It was totally unlike 
anything that had appeared before the Christian era. 
It is true that during its sway power and wealth still 
remained in the hands of the Upper Class, but they 
were no longer monopolized. It is true that slavery 
was still the lot of the Lower Class, but it was no 
longer regarded as a final condition. It was in 
France that the Feudal System was first developed, 
where it was better organized and more vigorously 
maintained than in other parts of Europe. In spite, 
however, of its great power, it was steadih^ invaded by 
the subtle influence of that irresistible doctrine brought 
into existence by Christianity, and during the whole of 
the Middle Ages Equality continued to expand and 
acquire new strength. Vires acquirit enndo. V^^'i^^s 
events, as related, combined with this new and restless 
principle to sap the basis of the Feudal system, and it 
fell to pieces in the seventeenth century. It was 
superseded by Absolute Monarchy, which reached its 
zenith in the reign ^f Louis XIV. In the eighteenth 



398 AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

century, the fermentation engendered by the fourth 
civilization — which had been working for so many 
centuries, and for which no legitimate channel had 
been provided — burst forth and deluged the land. In 
ancient or modern history no similar event to the 
French Eevokition had occurred. The multitude rose 
in their might, and, under the inspiration of the 
Christian dogma of the Equality of all men before God, 
demanded emancipation for mind and body under legal 
guarantees. It was obtained, and can never be lost. 
Since then power, wealth, and knowledge are mono- 
polized by no Class ; and ignorance, poverty, and slavery 
are no longer the bequest of unequal laws. 

England, 

In England, the withdrawal of the Romans was fol- 
lowed, as elsewhere, by the irruption of German tribes, 
which gradually fell under the influence of Christianity. 
Towards the end of the eighth century — the epoch of 
Charlemagne — order, morality, and religion began to 
glimmer in England. Under the Saxon regime the 
power and wealth were in the possession of the Upper 
Class, but, as in all parts of Christianized Europe, 
no longer monopolized. So far from that, members 
of the free Middle Class in England constantly 
ascended into the Nobility, and the slaves or Lower 
Class were constantly obtaining freedom. The regular 
development of Saxon society was disturbed by the 
Norman Conquest, which led to the Saxon Upper 
Class being superseded by the Norman Upper Class. 
This singular conjunction of a Norman Upper Class, 
a Saxon Middle Class, and a native Lower Class on 



SUMMARY. 399 

the same soil, is a peculiar feature of English history. 
A compromise between the interests of all ensued, and 
hence the origin of Magna Charta and the House of 
Commons. The prerogatives of the Upper Class, 
power and wealth, were shared with the Middle Class, 
which in its turn opened its ranks to the aspiring 
of the Lower Class. Thus it happened that thd 
Christian dogma of Equality which in France was ex- 
cluded or dammed up, as it were, was in England 
favored by accidental circumstances, and found natural 
and easy outlets. Consequently no hurricane like the 
French Eevolution was needed in England to effect an 
organization of society in harmony with the fourth civi- 
lization. There the power, wealth, and knowledge, 
which in the ancient world were engrossed by the Upper 
Class, became more and more accessible to all who 
sought them, or whose intelligence commanded them. 

The Papacy. 

The establishment at Eome in 42 a.d. of a spiritual 
Head for the young Church, was one of the most potent 
means of securing its advancement, by giving unity to 
the efforts, and encouragement to the zeal of the 
Christian Priesthood. So long as the See of Eome was 
solely occupied with the interests of the Church, and 
the propagation of the primitive doctrines, its influence 
was beneficial, and constantly augmented. In the 
progress of centuries the spiritual power of the Papacy 
became so vast that it grew insensible to its true 
mission ; and instead of occupying itself with the 
religious and moral welfare of mankind, it began to 
interest itself in the temporal concerns of the world. 



4CO AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

AVorse than this, the Papacy, forgetful of its origin, 
and disregarding the interests of the masses, on which 
Christianity was founded, allied itself wholly with the 
Upper Classes, and thereby strengthened and prolonged 
their power. These derelictions from its early and 
true role, weakened its hold on the Lower Class, and 
have in the process of time exposed it not only to 
damaging vicissitudes, but have greatly impaired its 
spiritual influence. Stripped. in our day of its temporal 
power, and chastened by the ordeal it has undergone, 
the Papacy may yet return to the pious discharge of 
those purely spiritual offices which were once its 
only care, and which laid the foundation of its supre- 
macy. 

The United States. 

It was shown in the preceding pages of this volume, 
that under the three civilizations of the ancient world 
Society was substantially divided into two great classes, 
the Upper and the Lower. The fourth civilization 
introduced a novel and disturbing principle when it 
announced the Equality of all men before Grod. Since 
then, the Lower Class in Europe has struggled through 
the Dark Ages, the INliddle Ages, and jNIodern Times to 
obtain its emancipation, and to occupy in the framework 
of society its just and natural positiou. The repugnance 
of the Upper Class, and the perseverance of the l^ower to- 
wards this consummation, explain in great part the con- 
vulsions of the European, world for centuries past. The 
deliberate abandonment of their native land by the 
Puritans in the seventeenth century, like the retreat 
of the Eoman Lower Class to MoiisSacer, gave a new 



SUMMARY. 401 

pliase to this protracted conflict. Tliese men of the 
popular class, clinging' to their Christian dogma of 
Equality^ and despairing of its recognition at home, 
carried it off to the wilderness where there were none 
to dispute it. This was the first instance of a Society- 
established on the basis of absolute equality before God 
and before the Law. This was the culmination of the 
fourth civilization, and the very antithesis of the three 
civilizations of the ancient world. In the latter, all 
power, wealth, and knowledge were absorbed by the 
Upper Class, whilst the Lower Class was consigned to 
perpetual exclusion ; but in the wilds of North America 
a Society sprang up consisting of but one Class, all and 
equally entitled to whatever share of power, wealth, 
and knowledge its members could through intelligence 
and industry obtain. What inequalities exist in the 
United States are of Grod's making, and not of man's. 
He has decreed to His creatm'es different degrees of 
intelligence ; and it is in harmony with this that we 
find in the new Society the distribution of men in 
Upper, Middle, and Lower Classes, but to none is 
given any privilege, monopoly, or adrantage, save such 
as can be obtained by the exercise of his intellect. If 
one man is more influential, or richer, or wiser than 
another, it is the guerdon of a superior capacity, and 
none contest this natural preponderance. For all the 
rest, Eeligion is frge, Law is equal, and Government 
the choice of the Majority. Whether a country so 
constituted is a final solution, or simply a beau ideal 
not compatible with the passions of men, remains to i^i 
seen. 



c 



402 Ah^ HISTORICAL RETROSPECT. 

In closing this Summary, may I venture a comment 
on tlie Present, and a glance at the Future. 

In denoting the perturbations of European society 
for so many centuries, I have assigned as their principal 
cause the efforts of the Lower Class of inferior intelli- 
gence to obtain from the Upper Class of superior intel- 
ligence an exemption from unjust oppression, and the 
recognition of their Equality before God . and the Law. 
I have shown that this ground-swell^ so to speak, dates 
from the Christian era ; and it may now be said to 
have nearly exhausted itself in three of the leading 
countries of the world. 

In the United States is seen a Society constructed 
on the basis of absolute equality, religious, legal, and 
political. Such social distinctions as exist flow from the 
inherent differences between men, and are accepted as 
inevitable. All that remains to be tested is the fitness 
of the Mass for self-government, which must be solved 
by the example of the United States. Everything has 
favored the experiment in that country : and if it be 
proved that the popular control exercised there over 
Grovernment cannot preserve it from corruption, folly, 
and crime — then all hope must be abandoned of arriv- 
ing Sit perfect Grovernment. But happen what may — be 
it the fate of the American Union to republicanize the 
world, or be it its fate to establish beyond all question 
that the laborious Majority is una^e to curb the more 
intelligent Minority — yet it cannot be doubted that 
never agfain will it be nossible to restore the ancient 
civilizations which gave all to the Upper Class and 
nothing to the multitude. No Grovernment, hereafter, 
will be durable or stronsr which does not promote the 
interests of the masses, who, if not able to guide it, 
know they have the strength to overturn it. 



SUMMARY, 403 

In England a state of society virtually similar exists, 
since no obstacles are interposed to the claims of 
genuine intelligence. The Upper Class enjoys no privi- 
lege beyond the reach of any. Merit ascends by regular 
gradation to its natural level. As in the United States, 
Religion is practically free, Law equal, and the G-o- 
vernment, though not the choice of the INIajority, is 
administered in its interest. To give the Majority the 
control of Government before it is competent by educa- 
tion and experience to exercise it, would be, as has been 
said, to involve society in confusion. 

In France, at the present day, the Lower Class 
is in plenary possession of the absolute equality pre- 
vailing in the United States. Nay more, not content 
with this, there are fanatics, called Communists, who 
Avould despoil superior intelligence of its acquisitions, 
to bestow them on those without claim. Though it is 
true that the Lower Class has achieved its complete 
emancipation in France ; though it is true that power, 
wealth, and knowledge, as in the United States, are 
denied to none ; yet society is unsettled, and frequently 
falls into disorder. The reason is to be ascribed to the 
fact that the Lower Class having, through the blind 
arrogance of the Upper Class, obtained sudden Inde- 
pendence by revolution, is unfitted by education and 
experience — which the United States possess — to pre- 
serve it. In consequence, the people abandon it at one 
time in despair, and at another seize upon it with 
fury. Time, with its discipline, can alone provide a 
remedy and ensure ultimate stability. 

It is plain that all Europe is drifting in the direction 
of the fourth civilization. The abolition of serfdom in 
Russia ; the resurrection of Italy ; the consolidation of 
Germany ; the anarchy of Spain : all attest it. 



404 ^' ^V HIS TO RICA L KE TROSPE C T. 

But the renovation of society on a mors eqnal Lasis 
is not limited to Europe and America. Already has the 
fourth or Christian civilization with its wonderful 
results — its telegraphs, railways, finance, and trade — 
penetrated into the long stagnant reservoirs of the 
ancient civilizations. The Missionary armed with the 
New Testament is but a Pioneer. In his train follow 
legislation, science, enterprise — in a word, the moral 
and material progeny which, after the gestation of 
centuries, the fourth civilization has brought forth, 
confirming its Divine origin and confounding scepti- 
cism. For who can deny that Christianity by eman- 
cipating the mind of the Mass is the parent of all the 
prodigies enumerated ? It is through the stimulus of 
England, France, and the United States, that the 
heathen lands of Asia and Africa are awakening to the 
new influences. The Religions and Laws which have 
there so long guaranteed the supremacy of the Upper 
Classes are being constantly modified ; and the burdens 
and exactions imposed on the masses for ages are being 
constantly diminished and removed.* To what extent 

* Sir Bavtle Frere, in his spepch to the working men at Bath, October 
inth, 1873, stated that " the working men, almost universally throughout 
the two hundred and odd millions inhabiting India, were everywhere 
trodden down by the strictest possible system of caste; but Christianity 
had been silently and imperceptibly breaking down the bonds of caste. 
Tie believed there were 33 societies of different denominations which 
were actively engaged in preaching the Gospel, through missionaries, 
to the people, and the effect had been to permeate the whole of Indian 
• society more or less with the spirit of Christianity. Through the spirit 
of Cliristianity, through railways, through legislation, and through the 
hundred influences of the Central Government, power had been com- 
municated to the people, which was gradually and imperceptibly, but 
surely, breaking down the power of caste \ and he believed that if, by 
the blessing of God, the empire of England over that country was per- 
petuated, before very many generations had passed, they would find 
that caste had melted away before the influences of Christianity." 

As an additional proof of the progress of the fourth civilization, it 
may be stated that active efforts are being made by Englibh capitalists 



SUMMARY. 405 

these ancient communities can be remodelled on the 
Christian basis, it is impossible to foresee. It will 
be remembered that the political and social organi- 
zations so long existing in these tropical lands, were 
shown to be chiefly due to physical causes. How far 
these may be eluded or tampered with by human laws 
is an enigma which the Future must disclose. 

to introduce railways and telegraphs into China. In spite of the firm 
opposition of the Gorernment, it would appear by the last advices that a 
line of telegraph of some ten miles has been erected, which may be 
regarded as the entering wedge. 

It is unnecessary to remind the reader that Japan has opened wide its 
gates, and welcomed the coming of the Christian civilizaLiuu. 



INDEX. 



Adams, John, views on independ- 
ence, 311; theory of govern- 
ment, 333 ; vice-president, 338 ; 
president, 356. 

Adams, John Quincy, presidency 
of, 387. 

Africa, early civilization in, 6. 

Albigenses, 264. 

Alcuin aids Charlemagne in found- 
ing schools, 43. 

Alderame, founder of House of 
Montferrat, 06. 

Alien Act, 358. 

Alison, account of the death of 
Marie Antoinette, 113; of Robes- 
pierre's execution, 119. 

America, early civilization, 9 ; dis- 
covery of, 51, 283. 

Anglo-Saxons, converted to Christi- 
anity, 41. 

Angouleme, Duchess of, 121. 

Anne of Austria, Regent, 87. 

Antoinette, Marie, execution of, 11 2. 

Aristocracy in France, 59 ; war 
against, 77. 

Aristotle, works of, 18. 

Arius, disbelief in divinity of Christ, 
38. 

Armies, standing, origin of, 83. 

Arnold, Benedict, treason of, 323. 

Asia, seat of the first civilization, 1 ; 
religion of, 3. 

Assignats, origin of, 106. 

Athens, government, 15 ; classes of 
inhabitants, 15. 

Austria, subjugation of, 138. 

Bacon, Lord, comments on reign of 
Henry YLl., 178 ; condemned, 204. 



Bacon, Roger, said to have invented 
gunpowder, 80. 

Baldwin, Count of Flanders, anec- 
dote of, 158. 

Bank of discount, first established 
in France, 95. 
of France established, 133. 
of the United States created, 
342, 379. 

Barebones parliament, 227. 

Barons, feudal, in Italy, 66; conflict 
with crown, 76 ; secure Magna 
Charta, 162; war against the 
king, 165 ; summon great council, 
167; powers under Edward II., 
168 ; defeated by the king, 170. 

Barras commands the troops of the 
Convention, 123; member of the 
Directory, 125. 

Bastille, 105. 

Beckett, Thomas a, assassinated, 
161. 

Boleyn, Anne, marriage with Henry 
VIII., 181. 

Bordeaux, Duke de, 145 ; Charles 
abdicates in favor of, 147. 

Boston Port Bill, 304. 

Bouchard, founder of House of 
Montmorency, 64. 

Bouillon, Duke of, defeat of, 86. 

Bouillon, Godfrey de, 261. 

Bourgeoisie, 85. 

Brahminism, 3. 

Bretagne, Count of, vassal of Wil- 
liam of Normandy, 61. 

Buckle, on Egyptian civilization, 6 ; 

adopts Montesquieu's theory of 

civilization, 25 ; on military duty, 

81 ; gunpowder, 82 ; standing ar- 

407 



4o8 



INDEX. 



mies, 83 ; the feudal system, 91 ; 
criticised, 200; on the Treaty of 
Westphalia, 277. 

Buddhism, 3. 

Bunker Hill, 308. 

Burgoyne capitulates, 318. 

Burr, Aaron, candidate for presi- 
dency, 3G2 : character, 363. 

Cabot, John, 283. 

Calabria, captured by William of 
Normandy, 61. 

Calvin, John, 269. 

Calvinism introduced into Scot- 
land, 270. 

Canada, discovery of, 283. 

Cannon, early use of, in war, 8S. 

Capet, Hugh, declared King of 
France, 58. 

Capitularies, 44. 

Carnot, member of the French Di- 
rectory, 126. 

Castle kings, 67. 

Catherine divorced from Henry 
YIII., 183. 

Catholics in reign of Henry YIII., 
187. 
persecuted in England, 191. 

Centralization in France, 135. 

Centuries in Rome, 28. 

Chambord, Count de, 145 ; Charles 
abdicates in favor of, 147. 

Charlemagne, advent, 43 j character, 
44; successors, 57. 

Charles the Bold, 57. 

Charles I. ascends the English 
throne, 207 ; dissolves parliament, 
210 ; war with Scotland, 210 ; calls 
Long Parliament, 212; contest 
with the commons, 215; civil war, 
217; imprisoned, 222; trial and 
execution, 223. 

Charles II., proclaimed king, 235 ; 
returns from exile, 238 ; restora- 
tion, 239 ; conspiracy against, 
241 ; laws passed, 246 ; death, 
247 ; character, 247 : anecdotes 
of, 248. 

Charles YII., of France, said to 
have raised first standing army 
in Europe, 84. 

Charles X. succeeds to the French 
throne, 146 ; abdicates, 147. 

Charron, 271. 



Charter government, 293. 
Chivalry, origin of, in France, 59. 
Christ, the Saviour, advent of, 31 ; 

mission of, 32. 
Christian converts, enthusiasm of, 

in Rome, 33. 
Christian priests, 43. 
Christianity, rise, 30 ; nature, 32 ; 

growth, 32-37; accepted by Con- 

stantine, 37 ; sects, 38 ; progress 

in Asia,-41. 
Church, character of the early, 40. 
Church of England established, 190. 
Church of Rome, 259 ; denounced 

by Luther, 267. 
Cicero, oj^inion of government, 26, 

333. 
Cinq Mars, Marquis of, executed, 

86. 
Civilization, First, 1 ; nature, 2 ; 

Second, 6; Third, 12; influences 

on, 23 ; Fourth, 30. 
Clergy in France, 91 ; struggle with 

Feudality, 92. 
Climate, influence of, on civilization, 

1, 6, 22. 
Clovis, 56. 

Code Napoleon, 132. 
Colonies in America, 293 ; form 

union, 294; resist England, 299; 

war begun, 308 : become sovereign 

states, 314: confederation, 318. 
Columbus, Christopher, 283. 
Committee of Public Safety, 108; 

created. 111; exercises absolute 

dictatorship, 117. 
Commons, House of, created, 165; 

sit separately from lords, 170 ; 

impeachments, 172: privileges, 

203 ; struggle with James, 204, 

205: antagonism to Charles, 208; 

divisions of, 21 ; dissolution of 

by Charles, 210 ; remonstrance 

against the crown, 214. 
Commune, origin, 77 ; under Louis 

YL, 79; privileges curtailed, 93; 

governs Paris, 108; ruled by 

Robespierre, 109. 
Condillac, publishes " Treatise on 

Sensations," 98. 
Confederation of American colo- 
nies, 318 ; failure of, 325. 
Confederation of the Rhine, 136. 
Confucius, death of, 17. 



INDEX, 



409 



Congress, continental, meets, 305 ; 
second meeting, 308 j meeting of 
United States, 338. 

Constantine accepts Christianity, 
37, 40. 

Constitution of the United States, 
330. 

Constitutional Convention in Phila- 
delphia, 328. 

Constitutional government, origin 
of, in England, 253. 

Constitutionalists, their struggle for 
power in France, 125. 

Constitutions of Clarendon, 161. 

Consuls in Rome, 28. 

Continental blockade, 137. 

Corday, Charlotte, 113. 

Cordeliers, founded by Danton, 109. 

Council of the Ancients, 122. 
of Five Hundred, 122. 
of Nice, 38. 

Count, origin of title, 58. 

Cranmer, Thomas, efforts for 
Henry's divorce, 182 ; made arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, 183 : 
executed, 189. 

Cromwell, Oliver, advent of, 209; 
leader of the Puritans, 214; 
sketch of his life, 218 ; master of 
parliament, 222 ; anecdote of, 
223 ; disperses parliament, 226 ; 
vocations of his officers, 227; pro- 
tector, 228 ; foreign policy, 229 ; 
aspirations for the crown, 230 ; 
death, 232 ; character, 233. 

Cromwell, Richard, succeeds his 
father as protector, 234. 

Crown, conflict with barons, 76. 

Crusades, 261. 

Dampierre, Guy de, 62. 

Danes in England, 152. 

Danton, character, 109 ; rules 
National Assembly, 111; com- 
pared with Robespierre, 113; 
execution, 114. 

Dark Ages, 42 ; summai-y, 395. 

Delaware, early settlers, 284. 

Democracy, rise of, 48. 

Descartes, influence of, 101, 272. 

Desmoulins, Camille, execution of, 
114. 

De Soto discovers the Mississippi 
River, 283. 



De Tocqueville, on Athens, 16 ; on 

equality, 31, 50. 
Diderot, publishes Encyclopa3dia, 

97. 
Directory in France, 121 ; parties 

of, 125 ; assumes dictatorial 

power, 126 ; opposition to, 127. 
Ducos created consul, 130. 
Duke, origin of title, 58. 

Ecclesiastical court revived, 250. 

Edict of Nantes, 271 ; revoked, 276 

Edward the Confessor, laws of, 159 

Edward I. succeeds to English 
throne, 168. 

Edward II., succession of, 168 
character, 169 ; deposed, 170. 

Edward III. of England, recog 
nized as King of France, 63 
reign of, 170. 

Edward IV., King of England, 175. 

Edward V. proclaimed King of 
England, 175. 

Edward VI. succeeds to English 
throne, 188. 

Egbert, King of Wessex, 151. 

Egypt, early civilization in, 6 ; 
religion of, 7. 

Elizabeth, accession of, 190 ; char- 
acter, 191 ; reign, 195 ; death, 
197. 

Elizabeth, sister of Louis XVI., 
executed, 115. 

Embargo law passed by United 
States, 369. 

Empire in France, 135 ; opposition 
to, 136; fall of, 139; extent of, 
141. 

Empire of the West, overthrown by 
Odoacer, 29. 

Encyclopaedia, published by Did- 
erot and D'Alembert, 97. 

England, Saxon epoch, 151 ; Nor- 
man conquest, 155; feudal sys- 
tem introduced, 155 ; feudality 
vanquishes the monarchy, 162; 
Magna Charta, 162; House of 
Commons created, 165; powers 
of the king, 166; parliament 
summoned, 167; Wales annexed, 
168 ; legislative functions of par- 
liament recognized, 173; the 
monarchy again in the ascend- 
ant, 177 ; reign of Henry VIII., 



410 



INDEX. 



180 ; accession of Elizabeth, 190 ; 
decline of the monarchy, 201 ; 
reign of Charles I., 207; the 
Revolution of 1688, 212 ; contest 
between Charles and parliament, 
212; civil war, 217; Cromwell, 
218 ; military despotism, 224 ; the 
protectorate, 228 ; death of Crom- 
well, 232 ; restoration of Charles 
IL, 239; origin of whigs and 
tories, 243; limited monarchy, 
249 ; crown ceases to be held by 
divine right, 253 ; material pro- 
gress, 254 ; acquires North Amer- 
ica, 284; measures against Amer- 
ican colonies, 299 ; war with same, 
308 ; treaty of peace, 323 ; com- 
mercial relations with United 
States, 367 ; war with United 
States, 372 ; summary, 398. 

Epicureans, philosophy of, 20. 

Equality of men, first preached by 
Christ, 31. 

Essex, Earl of, commands parlia- 
mentary forces against Charles, 
218. 

Ethiopia, early civilization, 6. 

Europe, early civilization, 12. 

Fawkes, Guy, 202. 

Federalists, 338. 

Feudal system, nature, 55 ; intro- 
duced into Gaul, 56 ; France, 61 ; 
Italy, 66 ; character of feudal 
laws in France, 75 : assailed by 
monarchy, 75 ; disappearance of, 
89, 90 ; Buckle on, 91 ; introduced 
into England, 155 ; vanquishes 
English monarchy, 162; abol- 
ished, 246. 

Fiefs, definition of, 55. 

Flanders, Count of, assassin of 
William of Normandy, 61. 

Florida, discovery of, 283. 

Fouquier Tinville, 117 ,* beheaded, 
121. 

France, classes, 49 ; middle ages, 
57 ,• divisions, 58 ; conflict be- 
tween crown and barons, 76; 
introduction of printing, 85 ; es- 
tablishment of the monarchy, 88 ; 
first bank of discount, 95; loses 
Canada and East India posses- 
sions, 96; intellectual activity, 



97; skepticism, 102; revolution, 
104; National Assembly meets, 

105 ; divided into departments, 

106 ; church property sold, 106 ; 
proceedings of Legislative Assem- 
bly, 107 ; committee of public 
safety, 108; parties of the Mon- 
tagne and the Gironde, 109 ; re- 
public proclaimed, 110 ; war pro- 
claimed against England, Hol- 
land, and Spain, 110 ; reign of 
terror, 111 ; under Robespierre, 
115; death of Danton, 114; of 
Robespierre, 119; National Con- 
vention supreme, 121 ; the Direc- 
tory, 121 ; advent of Napoleon, 
123 ; war against foreign nations, 
124; the consulate, 131; under 
Napoleon, 132 ; the empire, 135 ; 
Napoleonic Wars, 136; restora- 
tion of the monarchy, 140 ; Water- 
loo, 141; second restoration, 142; 
parties, 143 ; downfall of the 
monarchy, 146; assists American 
colonists, 322 ; relations with the 
United States, 357; summary, 
397. 

Franklin, Benjamin, views on inde- 
pendence, 312. 

Franks converted to Christianity, 
41. 

Fronde, war of the, 87. 

Garter, order of, founded, 171. 

Gaul, invasions of, 67. 

Genet, 345. 

George III., cause of American war, 
313. 

Georgia settled, 284. 

Germans accept Christianity, 41 ; 
occupy Gaul, 67. 

Girondists, 108; leaders of, 110; 
imprisoned. 111. 

Goths accept Christianity, 41. 

Government, theories of, 330. 

Greece, growth of civilization, 14; 
converted into a Roman prov- 
ince, 21 ; religion, 21 ; aspects of 
nature, 23 ; compared with India, 
24. 

Greek Church separated from Ro- 
man Church, 41. 

Gregorian calendar annulled in 
France, 110. 



INDEX. 



411 



Gregory VIL, 260. 
Grey, Lady Jane, executed, 189. 
Guise, Duke de, 63. 
Guizot, comments on Charlemagne, 
45 ; character of "Washington, 364. 
Gunpowder, invention of, 79. 
Gunpowder Plot, 202. 

Habeas Corpus Act, 246. 

Hamilton, General, opposition to 
Burr, 363. 

Hampden, John, 210. 

Harold II., last Saxon king, 154. 

Hartford Convention, 378. 

Hastings, battle of, 145. 

Hazlitt, account of death of Robes- 
pierre, 119; comments on Najio- 
leon, 123. 

Hebert executed, 114. 

Helvetius writes " The Mind," 98. 

Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I., 
207 j character, 216. 

Henry, Prince de Leon, 65, 

Henry I. ascends English throne, 
160. 

Henry II., Duke of Montmorency, 
64. 

Henry IL, King of England, 161. 

Henry III., King of England, 164. 

Henry IV. succeeds to English 
throne, 172. 

Henry IV. of France, 271. 

Henry V. ascends English throne, 
174. 

Henry VI. proclaimed King of 
England and France, 174. 

Henry VII., King of England, char- 
acter of reign, 178. 

Henry VIII. ascends English 
throne, 180 ; marriage with Anne 
Boleyn, 181 ; head of the Church, 
184; wives, 188. 

Heroic Age, in Greece, 14. 

Hindostan, seat of the first civili- 
zation, 1 ; caste in, 2 ; inhabitants 
compared with the Greeks, 24. 

Holland annexed to France, 138. 

Homer, date of poems, 14. 

House of Commons created, 165; 
sit separately from the loi-ds, 170. 

Howe, Gen., in command of British 
forces, 315. 

Hudson, Henry, 284. 

Huguenots, 270. 



Hume, sketch of character of Charles 

IL, 247. 
Hundred Days, The, 141. 
Huss, John, 265. 
Hyde, Sir Edward, 246. 

Iconoclastic controversy, 41. 

Impeachment power first exercised, 
170. 

Independence, struggle begun in 
America, 306 ; declaration of, 308. 

Independents, compose Rump Par- 
liament, 235 ; decline, 237. 

India, seat of the first civilization, 1 ; 
religion, 3 ; aspects of nature, 23; 
compared with Greece, 24. 

Innocent III., interdicts of, 263. 

Innocent IV. excommunicates Em- 
peror of Germany, 263. 

Inquisition established, 263. 

Institutes of Menu, 1. 

International law, origin of, 277. 

Ireland, early period, 151; invaded 
by Cromwell, 224. 

Italy, wars in, 262. 

Jacobins, 109; club closed, 121. 

James I. ascends English throne, 
201 ; struggle with parliament, 
204. 

James IL of England, accession of, 
249; acts of toleration, 250; an 
exile, 252. 

Jay, John, negotiates treaty with 
England, 347. 

Jefferson, Thomas, views on Inde- 
pendence, 312 ; member of Wash- 
ington's cabinet, 340 ; relations 
with Washington, 350 ; author of 
"Kentucky Resolutions," 369; 
presidency of, 363. 

Jesuits, order of, suppressed, 276. 

John ascends English throne, 161 ; 
reign, 162: death, 164. 

John, Count of St. Pol, 63. 

Johnson, Andrew, impeachment, 
336. 

Jury trial, origin of, 161. 

Justinian Code, 27, 28. 

Knight, duties in France, 60. 
Knighthood, created in France, 59 ; 

abolished, 106. 
Knox, John, 270. 



412 



INDEX. 



Lacretelle, account of the death of 
Marie Antoinette, 113. 

Lambert disperses Rump Parlia- 
ment, 236. 

Land, tenure of, in Middle Ages, 56. 

La Paix de Dieu, 58. 

La Rochefoucauld, House of, 65. 

Lasalle descends Mississippi River, 
284. 

Laud, Archbishop, 210; impeached, 
213. 

Law, establishes bank of discount 
of France, 05 ; death of, 96. 

Lee, Richard Henry, 309. 

Legion of Honor, instituted by Na- 
poleon, 133. 

Legislative assembly in France, 
106; proceedings, 107. 

Le Grand Monarque, 94. 

Leo III. restored to the Papacy, 44. 

Leo X., 266. 

Lollard, Walter, 264. 

Lombards accept Christianity, 41 ; 
masters of Italy, 42. 

Longueville, Duchess of, 87. 

Lords, in feudal period of France, 
61. 

Lords, House of, dissolved, 224. 

Louis, Count of St. Pol, 63. 

Louis VI. of France, reign, 76. 

Louis VII. continues war against 
aristocrac.y, 77. 

Louis IX., 78. 

Louis XL, exploits, 84; introduces 
printing into France, 85. 

Louis XIV., character, 94; bril- 
liancy of his reign, 94. 

Louis XV., reign, 96. 

Louis XVIv character, 104; aids 
American colonies, 104; convokes 
states general, 105 ; execution, 110, 

Louis XVIIL, King of France, 140, 
142 ; character, 144. 

Louis Philippe, 148. 

Louisiana settled, 284 ; purchased 
by United States, 366. 

Lutiier, Martin, 206. 

Lycurgus, 14. 

Macaulay, comments on Grecian 

philosophy, 20. 
Madison, James, presidency of, 371. 
Magna Charta, 162; established, 

168; petition concerning, 169. 



Maria Louisa of Austria, married 
to Napoleon, 138. 

Martel, Charles, 57. 

Mary succeeds to English throne, 
189; death, 190. 

Mary Queen of Scots, execution of, 
197. 

Marv, wife of William of Orange, 
252. 

Maryland settled, 284. 

Massachusetts resists the mother 
country, 303. 

Mazarin, Minister of France, 87. 

Menes, King of Egypt, 6. 

Menu, Institutes of, 1 ; code of, 2. 

Mexico, early civilization in, 8. 

Middle Ages, 55 ; in France, 57. 

Middle class, birth of, in France. 92 ; 
growth, 93; becomes National 
Assembly, 105 ; in England, 152 ; 
position of, 177, 197. 

Mirabeau, 106. 

Mississippi River, discovery of, 
283. 

Missouri Compromise, 385. 

Modern society, birth of, 45. 

Monarchy assails feudality, 75 ; es- 
tablished in France, 88; triumph, 
89 ; decline, 95 ; restoration, 140 ; 
second restoration, 142 ; downfall, 
146 ; in the ascendant in Eng- 
land, 177; decline, 201. 

Monasteries, rise, 43; abolished in 
England, 185. 

Monk, General, march to London, 
236. 

Monmouth, Duke of, 241 ; beheaded, 
249. 

Monroe, James, presidency, 381. 

" Monroe Doctrine," 386. 

Montague, la, 107 ; leaders of, 109. 

Montaigne, 271. 

Montesquieu, theories of civiliza- 
tion adopted by Buckle, 25 ; pub- 
lishes " The Sjnrit of Laws," 97. 

Montferrat. House of, 66. 

Montfort, Simon de, exploits of, 62, 
165; slain, 168. 

Montmorency, Duke of, defeat and 
execution, 86. 

Montmorency, House of, 63. 

Moravian Brothers, 265. 

More, Sir Thomas, executed, 185. 

Mortimer, Earl of, 170. 



INDEX. 



413 



Napoleon in command of troops of 
the Convention, 123 ; commands 
army of Italy, 125 ; expedition to 
Egypt, 127 ,- returns to Paris, 128 : 
first consul, 131 ; frames new con- 
stitution, 132 ,• reforms, 133 ; 
emperor, 134 ; relations with for- 
eign nations, 136; marries Maria 
Louisa of Austria, 138; Russian 
campaign, 138 ; abdication, 139 ; 
Waterloo, 141 ; character, 141. 

National Assembly, early meeting 
in France, 105 ; proceedings, 105 
moves to Paris, 106. 

National Convention, origin, 107 
meets in the Tuileries, 109 : parties 
in, 109: proclaims republic, 110 
condemns Louis XVL to death, 
110 ; under Robespierre and Dan- 
ton, 111; proclaims the existence 
of a Supreme Being, 116; con- 
demns Robespierre, 118, 119; ac- 
quires supreme power, 120 ; meas- 
ures, 121 ; forms constitution, 121 ; 
organizes troops, 123. 

National Intelligencer, establish- 
ment of, 365. 

Natural phenomena, influence on 
civilization, 23. 

Navigation Act, 300. 

New England, settlement of, 293. 

New Orleans, founded, 284. 

New polity, 47 ; summary, 395. 

New York, founded, 284. 

Nice, Council of, 38. 

Nobility, titles of, abolished in 
France, 106. 

Nobles, feudal, in the crusades, 79 ; 
overthrown by Richelieu, 85. 

Non-intercourse Law, 370, 371. 

Norman Conquest, 155. 

Norman lords in England, 160. 

Nullification, origin, 360. 

Nuremberg, treaty of, 269. 

Oath of supremacy, 185. 

Odoacer overthrows Empire of the 

West, 29. 
Orleans, Duke of, guillotined, 113. 
Ostrogoths become masters of Italy, 

42. 
Oxford, Provisions of, 165. 

Paganism, end of, 38. 



Paine, Tom, pamphlet on " Common 
Sense," 312. 

Papacy, 259 ; extent of power 
during the Middle Ages, 263 ; 
denounced by Luther, 267 ; edict 
of Nantes, 271 ; opposition of 
Descartes, 272 ; of Richelieu, 
275 ; treaty of Westphalia, 277. 

PajDal power, decline, 178; statutes 
against, 183. 

Pariahs, 3. 

Paris improved by Philip Augustus, 
78 ; government, 108 ; under Na- 
poleon, 124. 

Parliament summoned by barons, 
167; legislative functions recog- 
nized, 173 ; privileges, 203 ; 
struggle with James, 204; oppo- 
sition to Charles, 208; Long 
Parliament, 212; remonstrance 
against the crown, 214 ; victory 
over Charles I., 216; turned into 
the street by Cromwell, 226 ; 
Barebones Parliament, 227 ; con- 
stitution under Cromwell, 229 ; 
Rump Parliament, 235 ; under 
Charles II., 246 ; supreme power, 
253. 

Pastoureaux, devastations by, 78. 

Patriots' struggle for power in 
France, 125. 

Peasants in France, 75. 

Penn, William, 284; character, 298. 

Peru, early civilization, 9. 

Peter the Hermit, 261. 

Petition of Right, 208. 

Philip Augustus continues struggle 
against feudality, 78; improves 
Paris, 78. 

Philip, Duke of Orleans, character, 
95. 

Philip, King of Macedonia, anec- 
dote concerning, 19. 

Philip IV. of France, 79 ; said to 
have raised first standing army, 
84. 

Physical science, culture of, in 
France, 100. 

Pisistratus founds the first hospital 
for wounded soldiers, 15. 

Plato, philosophy of, 17. 

Plymouth, landing of Puritans, 284. 

Plymouth colony resists mother 
country, 299. 



414 



INDEX. 



Polybius, opinion of government, 

27. 
Pompadour, Madame de, mistress 

of Louie XV., 96. 
Ponce de Leon disco^fers Florida, 

283. 
Pope, bull against English barons, 

164,- opposition to, in England, 

183 ; laws against, repealed, 189 ; 

defied by Elizabeth, 190 j powers, 

260. 
Popular representation, origin of, 

167. 
Presbyterianism introduced into 

Scotland, 270. 
Presbyterians struggle against 

Cromwell, 221. 
Prescott, William H., on civiliza- 
tion in Mexico and Peru, 10. 
Pride's Purge, 222. 
Primitive Church, three periods of, 

39. 
Primogeniture, established in 

France, 58. 
Proprietary government, 297. 
Protective Tariff, 378, 389. 
Pl-otestantism in Germany, 277. 
Protestants excluded from parlia- 
ment, 245 ; origin of, 269. 
Prudhomme, account of the victims 

of the Kevolution, 112. 
Prussia, alliance against Napoleon, 

139. 
Puritanism, 192. 
Puritans, mission of, 51 ,* character, 

286. 
Pyramids in Egypt, 8 ; in Mexico, 
"lO. 

Quesnay, labors of, 100. 

Rabelais, 271 . 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, lands in Vir- 
ginia, 284. 

Reade, Winwood, sketch of the en- 
thusiasm of the early Christian 
converts in Rome, 33 ; sketch of 
the early Christian Church, 38; 
government of the castle, 67. 

Reformation introduced into Eng- 
land, 183, 266. 

Reign of Terror inaugurated in 
France, 111 ; extent of slaughter, 
112. 



Religion of India, 3; of Egypt, 7; 
of Europe, 12; of Greece, 21. 

Revolution in France, 104; victims, 
112; influence, 120; in England, 
212; in America, 308; views of 
leading men, 311; war, 314. 

Revolutionary tribunal formed, 111; 
suppressed, 121. 

Richard L of England, 161. 

Richard II. succeeds to English 
throne, 171. 

Richard III. usurps English 
throne, 175. 

Richelieu invested with supreme 
power, 85 ; oj)position to papacy, 
275. 

Richmond, Earl of, defeats Richard 
III., 175. 

Robespierre, character, 109 ; rules 
National Convention, 111; com- 
pared with Danton, 113; sacri- 
fices Danton, 114; at the head 
of France, 115; harangue con- 
cerning Supreme Being, 116; in- 
fluence, 117 ; denounced by the 
National Convention, 118; ex- 
ecuted, 119; comments on, 119, 
120. 

Roger of Normandy, exploits of, 62. 

Rohan, House of, 64. 

Roman bishops, 260. 

Roman Church separated from 
Greek Church, 41. 

Roman empire, fall of, 38 ; assailants 
of, 42. 

Roman jurisprudence, 27 ; centu- 
ries, 28 ; consuls, 28 ; power, 29 ; 
empire, 29. 

Romans in Britain, 151. 

Rome borrows civilization from 
Greece, 26 ; jurisprudence, 27 ; 
forms of government, 28 ; height 
of power, 29 ; frontiers, 29. 

Root and Branch Men, 216; Inde- 
pendents, 216. 

Rousseau, works, 98. 

Royal government, 296. 

Roval jjower conflicts with nobility, 
85. 

Royal society, 256. 

Royalists' struggle for power in 
France, 125. 

Rump Parliament, 235. 

Russell, Lord, executed, 243. 



INDEX. 



415 



Russia, alliance against Napoleon, 
139. 

Saratoga, battle of, 318. 
Saxon epoch, 151. 
Scepticism in France, 102. 
Scholastic philosophy, 273. 
Schwartz, said to have invented 

gunpowder, 80. 
Scotland, Calvinism introduced, 

270. 
Sedition Law, 358. 
Serfdom in France, 90. 
Shays's Rebellion, 325. 
Ship Money created, 210; declared 

illegal, 213. 
Sieyes, Abbe, 107 ; created consul, 

130. 
Siva, 3. 
Slavery, 383. 
Smith, Adam, 100. 
Smith, John, founds Jamestown, 

284. 
Socrates, character, 17. 
Solon, constitution of, 15. 
Spain, war with France, 137. 
Stafford, Viscount, executed, 2^1. 
Stamp Act, 301 ; repealed, 303. 
Star Chamber abolished, 213. 
States General, convoked by Louis 

XVL, 105. 
Stephen, King of England, 161. 
Stock-gambling, origin of, 95. 
Stoics, philosophy of, 20. 
Strafford, Earl of, executed, 213. 
Stuarts, beginning of the reign of, 

201. 
Sudras, 2. 
Summary, 393. 
Suzerain, definition of, 56. 
Sydney, Algernon, conspires against 

Charles IL, 241 ; executed, 243. 

Tacitus, opinion of government, 27, 

333. 
Taxation vested in commonalty, 

167 ; declared tyrannical without 

representation, 299. 
Tea thrown overboard in Boston 

harbor, 304. 
Test Act, 245 ; annulled, 250. 
Thanes, 152. 
Thiers's comments on the French 

Revolution, 114, 115. 



Tinville, Fouquier, 117; beheaded, 

121. 
Tory party, origin, 243. 
Tournaments, origin, 59. 
Treaty of Westphalia, 277. 
Tropical climates, character of, 22; 

influence on civilization, 23, 25. 
Tuileries sacked by the mob, 108. 
Tyndal, 270. 

United States colonial epoch, 283 ; 
mother country renounced, 299; 
Declaration of Independence, 308; 
Revolutionary War, 314; con- 
dition of the states in 1776, 316; 
confederation, 318 ; peace, 323 ; 
failure of the confederation, 325 ; 
Constitutional Convention, 328; 
new constitution, 330 ; presidency 
of Washington, 338; of John 
Adams, 356; of Jefferson, 363; 
commercial treaty with Eng- 
land, 367; Embargo law, 369; 
presidency of Madison, 371 ; war 
with England, 372 ; presidency of 
Monroe, Missouri Compromise, 
385 ; presidency of John Quincy 
Adams, 387 ; summary, 400. 

Universal suffrage, 133. 

Vandals accept Christianity, 41. 

Vedas, 1. 

Virginia, landing of English, 284. 

Vishnu, 3. 

Vitry burned, 78. 

Voltaire, character, 99. 

Waldenses, 264. 

Wales annexed to England, 168. 

War of the Two Roses, 175. 

Warwick, Earl of, 174. 

Washington, George, commands 
American forces, 308; letter to 
Captain Mackenzie, 311 ; vic- 
tories at Trenton and Princeton, 
317; letterto Congress, 319; char- 
acter, 321 ; views of the confed- 
eracy, 326 ; letter to Lafayette, 
327; president of the Constitu- 
tional Convention, 328; presi- 
dency of, 338; relations with 
Jefferson, 350 ; farewell address 
352. 

Wat, leader of insurgents, 171. 



4i6 



INDEX. 



Waterloo, 141. 

Wentworth, Peter, sent to the Tower, 
194. 

Whig party, origin, 243. 

Wicklifife, 264. 

William, Marquis of Montferrat, 66. 

William of Normandy, deeds of, 
61; lands at Hastings, 155; in- 
troduces feudal system into Eng- 
land, 155; character, 158 ; death, 
160. 

William, Prince of Orange, 251 ; 
accepts English crown, 252. 



William Rufus, succeeds to English 
throne, 160. 

Williams, Roger, 293. 

Windsor Castle, built, 171. 

Winthrop, Governor, views of lib- 
erty and order, 292. 

Wolsey, Cardinal, 180; disgraced, 
182. 

Woolsack, origin, 205. 

Worcester, battle of, 225. 



Yorktown, capitulation, 323. 



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same— a Feature never attempted in any other Work ; 

III, — The Classical Names of all ancient Places, so far as they can .« 
accurately ascertained from the best authorities ; 

IV. — A Complete Etymological Vocabulary of Geographical Names ; 

v.— An Elaborate Introduction, explanatory of the Principles of Iro- 
nunciation of Names in the Danish, Dutch, French, German^ 
Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese^ 
Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Welsh Languages. 



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